Will of the King
by straros
Summary: Awaking to a collar around his neck and no memories of his past, Naruto is forced to fight for his sanity in a new world for the will of a Gnome king yet when the collar falls and his memories return who will feel his wrath, azeroth will never be the same
1. Pain

Pain, it had several meanings to him, a feeling, a strength, a measure, and an enemy both figuratively and literally. It was something from his past, and something promised in his future. How long had he been in this hell, this limbo he did not know nor did he cause. Minutes, days, weeks, years, they had all bled into each other, day and night, night and day; they all had no meaning in this prison of stone and steel.

All he knew was one thing, to relieve the pain he felt, to gain peace even for a time, all he had to do was fight and kill, he did not know who they were or even what they were, they ranged from all shapes, sizes and colors, greens, purples, blues, even some like his own, some with their flesh falling apart and some who looked like bulls, others with pointed ears, and more still who did not reach his knees.

The bodies knew no count at this point; his hands were dyed red to the bone by now. His ears filled with their screams and his eyes etched with their fear. He knew what he was once and what he was now by his own making; he had become what he had contained from his first days without even failing, for the true beast was still there silent and laughing. It had been his companion for as long as he could remember, even though he may not know his own name or the name of the one who resided within he knew the beast's memory was timeless, as long as someone remembered he could reclaim what he was. That was what he believed, that was what he hoped with all he was.

What was he, a hollow shell, or a container, perhaps both, not that he knew, the constants in his un-death were small, the beast, his heartbeat, his master, and the collar. The beast who refused to speak nothing yet laughed all the same, the heartbeat that kept him here, and the master which kept him here along with the collar. The collar was the source of his pain; it kept him in check and in chains, that is until his master called. His master, one of the smaller creatures he had seen with skin a sickly green different from his counter parts, he was an old and wizened member of his race from what he could tell, even being through his fair share of battle judging from the cane needed to support him when walking, however among his people he was called and revered by the insane and corrupted as _high tinker_. His name was _Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg, _when the high tinkercalled was the only times of peace even If they were his nightmare, for that was when he was called to kill, when he saw his reflection in their eyes and on the steel surfaces around him, his formerly blond hair dyed red from the blood that covered his body for as long as he could remember, his pointed ears oddly like some of his victims, his eyes, bright blue one second, and a crimson red the next, the broad scars like whiskers that ran along his face with one more over his eye from combat. It was only then that he remembered part of who he was as the collars control slipped; it was then that he realized how far he had fallen.

With nothing but his own hands and strength he destroyed all that came before him. For awhile he tried simply knocking them out at the start of it all, he was soon punished and made to watch as the _High Tinker _had fun turning the captives over to his side. He knew what he witnessed should disgust him, he knew he should stop it, he knew he could. But he didn't, it was then he realized they were there because of his mercy, it was his fault for them being as they were now, and it was too late when he realized he had stopped caring, then he was only disgusted with himself.

After that first few times he never left one creature before him alive.

And it was after every fight… no they couldn't even be called a fight, they were a massacre that he snapped, he would always try and kill his master for he knew it was only by his wish that he still lived, his wish that kept him in pain every waking second. After every slaughter he would attempt to tear his throat out, to rib his short stubby limbs from his body after tearing apart his little tin can he fought in. yet every time he came close the collar stopped him. The pain would knock him out, yet even then it wouldn't stop, they had found his healing abilities interesting, had toyed with him, experimented on him to find its limits, they failed to. Dragged back to where he was kept at the back of the _Tinker's Court _he would then be chained up to the ceilings and floors, suspended in the air where he was to stay until next called with the collar still giving him pain. It was at these times only where he heard the beast's laughter, mocking him as he saw it out the sides of his eyes and in the darkness of them when he blinked.

He knew he would die like this, he should have died long ago, he didn't even remember the last time he actually ate, and this was a very painful thought for him in particular.

He knew though he would have his chance, it mattered not if he had to wait a week, a year, or a one hundred years, he would escape, and when he did the High tinker would pay.

His rage would be sated.

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Oddly enough for once it was not the absence of the collar's pain or the laughter of the beast that woke him from his slumber. His sensitive nose picked up new scents even through the strong scents of copper and sulfur. No after waiting a moment he realized as his sharp hearing finally was processed over the clanking that extra piece of information, this was no ordinary time for him, making sure to keep his eyes closed and his breathing slow as if still asleep he listened.

"**Pay attention kit, this is different from all the other times." **A dark voice from the recesses of his mind spoke in an ancient tone.

"_Who are you?"_ He queried, quickly overriding his shock.

"**The better question is what. Now be quiet, your actions in the passage of time here may have gained you my respect boy but nothing else, don't ruin it." **The voice said with a tone of finality.

"It's over Sicco, I'm ending this today!" a new high pitched voice said with conviction.

A maniacal laugh soon filled the Tinker Court as a grinding noise started. "Gelbin, how long has it been old friend? Six years almost hasn't it? How have you been outside my utopia?" His master said in a too calm and casual voice.

"You dare call this place a utopia, look at what your schemes have done, our home is an irradiated wasteland devoid of life beyond troggs, our people are dying or insane in this place while you sit here in the court of our greatest through treachery." Gelbin seethed as the warriors and sorcerers with him began gritting there teeth in rage.

Rage and madness mingled into Thermaplugg's voice as it shined through his eyes. "Treachery, I only reclaimed what was destined to be mine before you stole it from me! It was my destiny to be the first _TRUE KING _of the gnomes in centuries. All my life I had planned for that day, the day when I was to ascend to the throne. Yet at the last moment they chose you Gelbin, chose you because I was too ambitious!" he spat out viciously before visibly calming down. "Although I am rather surprised to see you here Gelbin, I assumed your old defense creation _Techbot _would be more then enough to hold you back. What was your old motto, ah yes "If it wasn't able to beat me then it isn't strong enough to defend this city."

A slight grin crossed Gelbin's face for a moment before he drew an odd looking pistol from his hip with one hand, while simultaneously drawing a short by human standards, sword with what looked like a spanner as a hilt. "Unlike you I haven't been idle these past years Sicco, I trained my body as well as my mind for this moment, nothing that was made back then will stop me, and neither will you." Taking a small step back Gelbin lowered the blade in his right hand till the point was almost touching the ground while leveling the pistols barrel with Sicco's head. "What I want to know is how? How did you know about the troggs, how did you know before anyone in the city how to release them and keep them contained?"

"Still the inquisitive mind eh Gelbin, well let's just say that since I couldn't heal my body I found other means to maintain my rule. This city has great plans coming for it, from both me and another. Let us just say my new partner is a rather ancient being with a fair amount of knowledge. It was all rather simple really; I just had to convince you to expand the storage areas as well as the waste disposal areas to a deeper level. As the workers dug deeper I switched them out with men and women more _loyal _to my cause, they then using information provided to me of the troggs whereabouts connected the waste reservoirs to the Troggs den, draining it in small amounts into their water supply, the end result was a tolerance build up to the chemicals. The rest you know quite well Gelbin, the troggs unexpectedly break loose during our excavation effort, I get you to release the chemical waste into the vents in hopes of destroying the troggs, you agree even after I tell you a few gnomes will die to save the entire race." He said with a grin.

"And then you betray me and our people, I evacuate as many of our remaining uninfected out of the city, you shoot me in the ribs, I shoot you in the knee because I thought there was still a chance for you. Is that what you were going to say?"

Sicco simply waved a hand dismissively in Gelbin's direction. "More or less, without the sentimental drivel that made you a weak ruler Gelbin. In the end you run off to your old allies in the alliance for safety within the dwarf city of _Ironforge_, all in hopes of taking this city back. However as your numbers dwindled day by day from all sides, my army here only grew larger. So to compensate you put a bounty on my head and started giving jobs to adventurers from the other races in hopes of exterminating me and the troggs from the city. Over the past six years I have survived though and you're probably wondering why." Sicco finished with a smirk from within the cockpit of his war bot.

"You've survived countless raids on the city from all the races of the world hoping to gain something from it. Either your immortal which is almost statistically impossible or you have some thing up your sleeve, fortunately I know what it is." Seeing the slight tinge of concern cross Sicco's face was all he needed to continue. "After all this time did you honestly think I wasn't watching what happened to my men? In other words you managed to finish your creation, an inter-temporal space rift generator matrix, a technological recreation of a warlocks summoning, a gate to the twisting nether."

"Quite the demon I found isn't he; looks almost like a human-elf cross breed but its abilities are above anything I could have ever dreamed of. Tell me were you as amazed as I was by his capacity for destruction, he almost seems docile at points yet others he's like a rabid beast. I say he is one of my favorite test subjects, heals almost immediately, I would even venture a guess he has some troll in him, haven't found anything he can't regenerate to one hundred percent. What's amazing though… is that everything we put his body through is eventually adapted to make it stronger. It's evolution incarnate." Sicco finished with a maniacal grin.

"_Evolution incarnate am I, bah and all its good for is getting me trapped and tortured as a slave." _He thought with disgust now listening more intently to the conversation. A slight grin appeared on his face at the next thought. _"Well if they kill each other Ill end up free."_

"**If they kill each other you still have a collar."**

"_If they kill each other I at least have some peace to get rid of this collar."_

"However enough chit-chatyou have wasted enough of my time, I already have enough trouble keeping that barbaric chieftain of the troggs in line and all the commotion has probably stirred him up. What are the chances you killed a trogg with a bright red headdress on his head, seems less intelligent then the majority, has a habit of bashing everything around him that moves into a wall?" Sicco said with a sigh.

"I didn't keep count on the way in, sorry Sicco."

"Ah well that's a true shame, now…" inside the of the glass incased cockpit of the war machine everybody could clearly see Sicco press a single large button to his right. And going by one of the rules that all gnomish inventors abide, a big red button is never good news.

The moment the button was pressed a noise was heard that resounded throughout the room. A moment later a giant of a man with a body tinged blood red came calmly walking in between the guardian faces. Against a force of seven gnomes and a dwarf, barring arms of steel, of magic, of shadow, and of light he strode in as a god of war. An emotionless face starred back at them as his eyes shifted quickly from deep blue to a crimson red and back again, and with a flex of his hands the already elongated and sharpened nails upon his hands extended and turned a deep black except for at the tips which remained a blood red.

With a maniacal grin Sicco continued as everybody tensed ready to spring into combat. "Why don't I deal with you Gelbin… while my pet deals with the rest of you."

"I will not ask forgiveness for my sins." He spoke slowly as his blood red eyes seemed to peer into their souls

That was the only warning the intruders had before Naruto sprung. In that instant all hell broke loose.

Before the gnomes even knew what happened he was inside their formation, his clawed hand sticking out the back of their priest. The once white robes slowly turning a cark red as the blood seeped down from the wound.

"For I know I am beyond redemption." He finished as he withdrew his hand from the priest letting its body fall to the ground.

"Warriors surround him; don't let him reach the spell casters!" Gelbin yelled back to his men as he blocked another of the robots claws with the broad of his blade.

Jumping back quickly while raising his gun, he fired a blast of what looked like pure lightning into the robots knee plate. For a moment the robot came to a grinding stop as the knee plate crumpled in on itself.

"Warlock, banish him." The ageing leader of the gnomes finished bitterly.

"You shouldn't turn your back on me so easily Gelbin." Sicco's maddened voice rang out before the damaged plate literally fired itself into Gelbin's back sending him flying into one of the steel pillars.

"It will be the end of you again." He laughed as his killing machine came back to life.

"MY LORD!" One of the mages yelled while gathering together a ball of flame in his hands.

The moment the machine had its back turned to him he threw it only for Naruto to seemingly phase right in front of it, catching it in the palm of his hand.

With a simple clenching of his fist the inferno exploded outward showering the area in magic flame.

"Your fight is with me not my master." He said while catching the overhead hammer strike aimed for his head from the paladin on his right.

Seeing the grin on the bearded face of the dwarf whose hammer he just caught brought a bad feeling to the fore.

"**Judgment of the Crusader, **may the light have mercy on your soul demon of the nether**.**" The dwarf said in a sorrowful tone.

Before he had time to recognize what even happened an ethereal hammer seemed to materialize out of thin air and slam into his stomach, driving him to his knees.

"Joshua, move back and resurrect the priest, holy spells seem to have more effect on him then ours do!" Called a mage who had just covered Naruto in an inch thick layer of ice.

"Fine give me some time Snoggan, Gresnal how close is the warlock to finishing the banishing?" Joshua Called back while turning towards the downed priest.

A large cracking noise resounded through the room as an aura of pure malice roared to life.

"**Not nearly close enough." **A demonic sounding voice calmly stated from the warlocks position.

Snapping back around, all eyes turned to find Naruto standing behind the warlock. A fiery aura seemed to surround him now as he gripped the head of the warlock in one hand, letting its tiny body dangle in the air.

"**I'm surprised you annoyed the brat enough to let me take over, with him you had at least a chance of a merciful death." **A sickening grin overcame his once emotionless face, exposing his bloodied fangs.

With a single jerking motion the demonic Naruto had sunk its fangs into the back of the gnome warlock's neck and tore it apart letting the body partially hang from the remaining muscles in its neck. Spitting the bone and muscle fragments from his mouth he simply grinned.

The blood now dripping from his maw only made the terrifying levels of killing intent worse as it rolled off him in waves, paralyzing the occupants for a moment in fear.

"Light give me strength." A silent prayer to all in the room from Joshua who only clenched his hammers shaft tighter as he starred at Naruto.

Tossing the ruined body aside and into a wall he grinned at the crowd. **"I'm feeling unusually kind right now as none of you seem to be backing down, I'll let you have one free shot on me, anywhere you want." **With a simple hand gesture the fiery aura surrounding him dissipated.

"**I'll even remove my cloak. Eyes, throat, heart, anywhere, just be sure to make it…" **He was cut off abruptly as a lightning bolt seemed to erupt right over where its heart was, deafening the room. Dropping down to his knees not a sound coming from his throat but a gurgle.

From his position pinned to the wall by his adversaries robot claw Gelbin managed the shot that felled the beast. "It seems your demon isn't as immortal as you thought he was, eh Sicco." Gelbin said with a grin.

The response from his enemy though was to simply have the bladed hand of his machine pinning Gelbin to the wall close on the right side causing Gelbin to cry out in pain.

"You're awful noisy for someone about to have his arm torn off Gelbin, and a little too smug to think you had won. Did you really think I would keep around such a weak pet, he has simply reverted to that soft hearted form of mind you first met. Isn't that right PET." Sicco called out while pressing a button in his cockpit.

A moment later the formerly prone body of Naruto began to stand up, showing not a scratch on his body or even a residue from the wound. A startled cry soon tore from his throat as everyone saw the collar around his neck begin to glow.

Anyone who had fought in the last war knew the feel of that type of energy.

Demonic energy, the same as Eredar magic.

"Now stop playing with your food pet, you don't want me to increase the control level again do you?" Sicco asked in a mocking tone.

For a single moment a flash of pure rage overtook his features as a low growl escaped his throat at the mention of being called a pet. Dark blue eyes stared into the coal black of his master's, daring him to try something. Yet it stopped just as quickly as his face once contorted with rage went to a relatively uncaring stare aimed at all in the room.

"THAT FUCKING HURT!" He cried out while placing a hand over his heart.

"That's payback for Gazlo demon!" Gresnal the warrior yelled at him in a rage.

A hollow barking laugh filled the room before he replied darkly as the once blue eyes turned red again. "You know, just for calling me that… you die first."

With a malicious grin on his face he appeared to phase out of sigh once again. Not a sound was heard not a breath until the scream tore through the silence.

He suddenly appeared behind Gresnal waving an arm in the air, it wasn't his own. A moment later Gresnal fell to the ground clutching the bloody stump that was once his arm.

"Ah dismemberment, now that brings back memories." He said with a content sigh. "So what would you prefer, I take a leg or your other arm next."

A rapid swing of the warriors axe to try and clear some room was quickly stopped at the elbow.

Adding a small amount of pressure to the back of the arm he forced the screaming gnome to the ground. "Oh so it's the arm you want gone next eh, well I would be happy to help."

With a jackal's grin on his face he slammed the warrior flat to the ground and placed one foot on its shoulder. With a quick twist and pull a loud cracking noise ushered forth as the bone splintered apart taking the arm with it.

Raising it up to his eyes he let out a sorrowful sigh. "Such a small arm, it wasn't a clean brake, it has all these little bone fragments sticking out of it." Looking down he saw that his victim was still actually conscious. "Well aren't you a tenacious bug," he said while discarding the arm.

Ducking down almost without care he managed to dodge right under a blade that would have decapitated him.

"Since your friends seem more willing to dance then you do right now, I'm going to go play with them now." He said while squatting down in to be on level with Gresnal.

Cracking his neck he made a single beckoning gesture to the room. "So shall we dance."

The other warrior who came swinging his sword a moment ago seemed hesitant at first. It was Joshua who made the first move, bathed in light his hammer slammed into the ground right where Naruto was once standing. Spider web like cracks spread out from the shattered steel that began to radiate a pure light.

"**Consecration." **Came the cry from the dwarf as his body glowed gold.

As the first strike was thrown by the paladin the others once too shocked to move seemed to regain their courage. The mages began gathering the power to for his spells while the second warrior changed his weapons from a sword and shield to a two handed broadsword.

"Ring formation, close combat outer circle, casters inner. All eyes open, we don't know where he'll come from or how he's disappearing.__Stick to frost and arcane spells, fire seems to have no affect on him, Joshua be careful we don't know if the light actually harms him but still we have a clear shot, I want Drayne back up on his feet." The gnome Snoggan ordered. _"All we can hope for now is that rogue can get a shot in before he's noticed." _He thought bitterly.

From his perch at the ceiling of the room he crouched down increasing his foot hold by extending his claws into the ceiling as he watched it all unfold as his first victim the priest was seemingly brought back from the dead. How this actually happened he didn't know, nor was he all that keen to try the experience first hand.

Turning his head slightly he watched as his master slowly began to lose his fight with the true Gnome king. Sicco's machine had lost in the process of the battle its right, clawed arm entirely and its left leg motors were getting slow and sloppy giving Gelbin the upper hand.

Gelbin though seemed at second glance to be no better off, blood seeped through his jacket where the clawed hand had grabbed him and he was breathing heavily. Also somewhere along the lines of the fight he had lost his lightning gun.

Now using all the power he had left in his surprisingly strong body he fought on against his former friend with both hands wielding his sword. The room rang with the clash of metal on metal as the machine body was slowly torn apart by the seemingly indestructible blade; even now it was without even a single dent in the grayish blue metal.

The winner of that battle was obvious to him even if it wasn't to the occupants, the death of his master would mean little to him. _"As long as he doesn't lose his nerve and make me fight I may be free."_

"**To what end, you don't know where you are, when you are, or even who you are."**

"_And you obviously know and have no intention of telling me."_

"**Of course, everything has a price though and you don't even know what my price is, let alone how to pay it. Just remember though, demons always honor their deals, find my price and I may make a deal with you."**

"_That's real helpful you know."_ Naruto growled inwardly.

"**Just remember, the key to the past is always closer then we think."**

"_Your awfully civil for a demon."_

"**You impressed me over the years here with your brutality and level headedness, unlike how you were as a child I can have a decent conversation without you trying to demand power from me and overall being an eyesore."**

"_As much as talking to you for the first real time since I woke up amuses and interests me I have to get this done before the 'master' activates the collar again." _He finished with a snarl.

Retracting the claws from his feet and hands that held him to the ceiling he dropped, spread eagle into the crowd below. Extending his black claws once again he slashed downward just as he landed, raking his claws down the backs of the two mages. His claws dug deeps wounds into them through their thick robes.

Their concentration flickered as the pain lanced unexpectedly through their bodies, causing the gathered power to rapidly escaped, blowing everyone back as the shockwaves tore through their bodies.

Using one of his clawed hands to slow his momentum to a stop he quickly searched for his next target. _"Where is that priest, I cant have him or that dwarf bringing their comrades back from the dead… its disgraceful to make the dead fight for the living. Especially if I just have to keep killing them."_

Locking onto the priests white robed form as it struggled to stand he shot forward like a bullet. In an amazing effort the priest managed to get its staff up in time to block the first overhead strike he unloaded onto it. However a moment later when a piercing scream tore through his head causing him to lose focus on his target long enough for it to say an unknown prayer.

As soon as the scream receded he felt the staff buried in his stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs and pushing him back. Regaining his bearings quickly he took notice of the almost invisible golden aura surrounding the priest.

"_These ones are different from the others I've fought before this." _He thought as he quickly phased from sight.

"**They're the royal guard, or at least some of them are, of course they are stronger."**

"_Time for a change in tactics then." _

Instead of simply reappearing behind them as he usually would, he maintained his illusion while moving at high speeds in a circle around the priest. All the while at every possible angle he battered away at what he dubbed the **Aura of Protection**. Each time he hit it he felt his strikes digging deeper and deeper into the shield.

Finally during a Sky heel drop he slammed through the barrier and directly onto the priests head. What he wasn't expecting was for his foot to pass right through the priest without any resistance and come crashing to the floor.

The once glowing gold body of the priest had changed to that of an inky black. The path where his foot travelled rippled like a lakes surface as it smoothed itself out. Pivoting on his planted foot he slashed through the priest's neck with his claws glowing a fiery red coming to a stop directly behind the priest.

A moment later the body fell in two.

"**Fight shadow with light, and light with shadow, yet when in doubt raw power and a little control go a long way." **The great beast laughed as the red glow subsided.

"_There was resistance that time passing through, there wasn't before?"_ He silently mused.

"**Demonic energy used correctly is a nullifier. Rather amusing when people get all high and mighty to watch their faces change as you tear them limb from limb after you destroy their best." **The beast finished with a laugh.

"_I take back what I said earlier, you're just a rather polite sadist."_

"**Nice compliment kid, oh and duck." **The voice mentioned almost offhandedly.

"_What? _Instead of listening to the warning Naruto decided to turn his head to the side to check what the beast meant.

The effect was almost comical though as, as soon as he turned his head a golden glowing hammer smashed into his head with the speed of a bullet train.

After regaining his senses he found himself in a foot deep, body sized indent half way up the steel walls of the room. He also noticed the three places where his body had skipped across the ground from where his blood smears were.

It was an oddly comforting fact for some reason that his blood was red and not black or green.

"**BLOODY HELL! Now this is what I remember, I haven't had to heal wounds like this in years. Damn kid don't even look surprised, I've now had to heal three fist sized holes in your chest, snapped necks, and you being turned into a pin cushion. I've kept you alive while being burned, buried, drowned, frozen in ice, oh ya and starved for about four years. You know he just caved your skull in there right? Go beat him, beat him until it stops being amusing." **The voice echoed with a mirthful laugh.

"_For you or for him? And do I even want to remember how I got those injuries?" _He asked in an amused tone.

"**No, and for me of course, screw him. I'm bored in here to often, the only times I get off are when you get pissed off and I get to come out for some fun."**

Surprisingly enough the knight in shining armor was still simply standing in plain view with a smirk on his face. As he pried himself out of the wall he contemplated just what his revenge would be, all the while mumbling about annoying, arrogant, big-white bearded, smug pricks.

"…_Big white bearded…"_ He thought evilly as a grin spread across his face.

The very thought of what he was about to do made the beast explode with laughter.

Immediately after freeing himself from the wall and landing in a crouch on the floor he phased out of sight. Instead of moving as he usually would to the enemies back or side he simply waited crouched down, watching the dwarf search for him. He knew that nothing was infinite, all he had to do was wait out that shield, he assumed it was a shield at least and then he would move in for the kill… or humiliation depending on how the dwarf thought of it.

However what was bugging him while he waited was two things. One was that he couldn't see though he could definitely smell the other warrior that was still alive. The other thing is that during the entire fight he felt like he was being watched. He was constantly hearing extra footsteps, too quiet for any of the others in the room, worse yet is that he had taken tally of every scent in the room before the fight had began and he knew there should only be ten scents in the room. His own, his masters, and the eight invaders, there was no ninth smell.

However before he could ponder further his little glowing friend had burned out. And so in a flash he had moved forward, right in front of the dwarf in a crouch.

In the next moment he reappeared.

Grabbed the dwarf by the beard.

And swung him head first into the ground opposite him.

Repeatedly.

After the seventh or eighth time (but who was really counting) he had decided that the poor bastard was dead. So to make sure he was dead he spun around once to gain momentum, planted his foot, and threw him like a Frisbee into one of the golden face masks.

The beast quite enjoyed the sound he made when it hit the ground after falling off the face. It also enjoyed that somewhere along the line Naruto had managed to rip off a good two thirds of the beard.

"_Happy now?"_ He asked while walking towards the corpse of the paladin.

"**I would have preferred if you had punted the fly into the air and then hit him with his own hammer until he was nothing more then a bloody smear of bone and pus, but yes that worked." **Giving the corpse a quick kick, he dropped the beard hairs over top of the body before looking around.

"_Well either way I'm getting tired of this, I lost any interest in this battle awhile ago even if these guys were stronger then the rest. Now, where's that hammer?"_

Eventually finding the handle sticking out of the golden face above him he started cursing.

"Things are never easy are they." He stated more then questioned. With his annoyance in mind he leapt into the air grasping a hold onto the hammer sticking out of the masks eye socket. Quickly impaling himself to the wall with the use of his clawed hands and feet he managed to rip the hammer out of the wall before landing on the ground.

For the first time taking a decent look at it he noticed a name carved into the handle. _Verigan's Fist _was the name; it was a simple design with a gold and silver head on a strong wooden shaft. The length of the weapon had to be a decent four feet.

"… _really makes you wonder how he managed to bash my head in."_ he stated mentally in confusion.

"**Indeed… perhaps he jumped." **The voice supplied, just as puzzled.

"_No it wouldn't work that way, he had hit me completely from the side, but he was what, less then four feet even, no matter how you look at it…"_

"**Leave it for another day?" **The voice supplied in resignation.

"_Leave it for another day."_ He agreed while hefting the mace up onto his shoulders with one hand. Slowly he began to search the large room for the last of his targets while avoiding the fight for the throne.

"Here mousy, mousy, mousy, I won't hurt you… much." He called out in annoyance.

He was annoyed because he had guessed from the armor and weapon style that the last one used that he would be a warrior. He was not expecting a game of cat and mouse from a warrior, less so was he not expecting to not even here movement besides that of the battle, even the footsteps had stopped.

Rounding the third statue he came face to face with the warrior.

Who did not move at all, he could see its eyes darting back and forward, he could see him looking right at him. And yet he did not move. Immediately making a quick once over for wounds and any new changes in scent he found his reason as a faint smell of blood came from the warrior. Hidden between his armor was a thin cut in the armpit, the place where the armor was weakest and also coming from there was another more putrid smell that brought a single thought to mind.

"_Poison!" _

"His realization came too late as a poison coated knife was jammed into the back of his neck.

Right through the collar.

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He remembered everything.

The faces of his parents as an infant.

The faces of his friends and enemies throughout his life.

The training he had gone through.

The people he had served, the people who he fought for. The people he eventually led if only for a short time.

He remembered the deaths of his mentors.

He remembered the deaths of millions caused by one man, Uchiha Madera.

He saw through his eyes the bodies of his friends brought on by his army. The army of the new Akatsuki. The people lied to wanting a new age free of shinobi, the men who wanted glory, freedom, or those who fought for money. The people who destroyed his home.

He remembered the death of his Best friend Gaara, he remembered arriving too late to stop the destruction of Suna.

He remembered hearing about the death of all the Jinchuuriki besides himself.

He listened to the cries of the dead and dying in the villages of Kusa and Kumo. He remembered watching the life leave the ideas of his lover Hinata.

He remembered the death of Sakura on the battlefield, the death of team seven, leaving only him.

The death of Tsunade protecting to protect Konoha.

His naming as Hokage at the age of eighteen. The pressure he felt not being ready for it.

The millions of days of experience gained from his clones, the training, the missions.

The paperwork.

The deaths of hundreds at his own hands under the name of the _Musei Hakaisha_ (silent destroyer), master of seals, clones, the wind, and silent killing.

He remembered his village burning as Akatsuki returned to finish him, how he squared off with Pein for revenge.

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In the middle of a long dead crater in the center of the burning village they stood, seven in bodies all. Six with eyes of white and black rings, black piercings al along their bodies wearing black cloaks with red clouds.

The other was a bright blue eyed, blond haired youth wearing a black Chuunin vest and pants under a billowing cape of black with red flames dancing along the edges, the words Rokudaime Hokage in blood red Kanji going down the back. A horned headband with the kanji for oil atop his head, a large bright red scroll upon his back and sitting on his chest was a brightly glowing green crystal pendant.

"You're not going to run away again, not this time. You will pay for what you did Pein, and this time your partner won't be able to save you." Naruto growled as his pupils changed to show his channeling of nature chakra.

"I am the god who will restore order to this world. You are simply the last stepping stone to the peace this world wants." The god realm pain stated.

"The world does not need more pain!"

"The only way true peace will be obtained is when everyone has suffered the same pain, the same losses as everyone else. When no understands pain they can freely bring it, when they know it they will not fight, they will not kill. That is the will of god."

"No, that is the will of Madera's pawn."

"So the jailer seeks to challenge a god. Just as I told Hanzo, Kakashi, and

Jiraya, you cannot win before the power of a god."

Leveling a glare upon the six bodies he stomped onto the ground with Tsunadian force, splitting the earth open and bringing into the air pillars of rock formed by pure nature energy. Each of the six pains landed on a pillar in a circle around Naruto.

"_Demon realm_, the human like weapon Asura. _Animal realm_, the summoner of the six paths of pain and the beasts of judgment. _Hungry Ghost realm_, the nullifier and absorber. _Hell realm, _the soul stealing gen-jutsu wielder. _Human realm_, the mind reader and destroyer. Lastly _God realm, _the master of attraction and repulsion. I know your tricks Pein, and I can match you in them!" Naruto cried out while managing to summon eleven **Kage Bunshin **without even a hand sign or calling the name.

"Your tricks matter nothing before the power of a god Uzumaki."

"We shall see Pein when you lie dead at my feet." And with a single mental command the clones scattered to deal with a single body two-on-one.

The original though went directly for the God realm with a clone at his side. In mid air they all seemed to vanish entirely, no hand signs no jutsu called out.

This was the jutsu that made him truly feared throughout the elemental realms. _Fumeizatsuki( _obscure the moon), a jutsu that combines both wind and water in the air to manipulate refraction of the light around his body and anything in direct contact with him perfectly, making him completely invisible. This combined with his mastery of silent killing the likes the world hasn't seen since Momochi Zabuza gained him his bingo book nickname and his S class threat ranking.

He knew how to win, the information gathered over several years by some of the greatest Shinobi of the leaf would not be put to waste.

The six Peins simply stood their ground atop the pillars even with loss of their target as long as they shared each others vision an ambush was impossible.

The Demon realm Pein was the easiest to deal with, its body was mostly mechanical in nature, and as such brute force was all that was required.

The clones attacking this target landed directly below it on its pillar, making sure it would not get the time to switch to its long range modes the two clones shattered the pillar with one blow, throwing it off balance for a moment.

The Animal realm was a problem and an easy solution. The problem came with the beasts of judgment and its ability to summon the bodies. He could get this right or fuck up royally depending on his timing on his movement.

The clones attacking the animal realm were already acting, moving in a circle around the pillar while drawing twin scrolls from one of their pouches.

With a quick flick of their fingers along the latch the scrolls innate power was soon to be revealed. As they continued to wind their way around the pillar at high speed the scroll began to unravel and wrap around the pillar in a criss-cross pattern.

As the first clone set destroyed the pillar the second set moved up at high speeds while becoming visible, wrapping the animal realms feet in the ends of the scroll which began to glow a dull blue, just as the Pein noticed the scroll he was already in the middle of a summoning.

TheHungry Ghost realm was possibly one of the most dangerous of his six forms as any attack it can absorb, any chakra from the attack is then converted into its own stores which can be transmitted between the bodies. The problem was that it also absorbed the chakra from Tai-jutsu attacks reducing them to just the power of the body. Against someone like Gai or Lee this would be no problem as their power was only their body. It didn't help that this pain also could enhance its physical abilities to stupid levels.

So with reckless abandon the third team tackled it off the pillar as the other two teams acted.

The hell and human realms were a mystery in a sense as it looked like they almost were the same technique from a distance, both kill with a touch, both required direct contact. Therefore long range tactics were the best to be used.

To deal with this the clones attacking these two split up, one going for the base of the pillar to shatter it the other would move above the realms.

When the first clones destroyed their pillars the seconds were already in place with kunai in hand, diving down at the two realms. With a quick application of wind chakra around the blades, a veritable maelstrom seemed to form around the knives turning them into a miniature missile.

The God realm Pein would be the most difficult of all to deal with. His power to draw in or push away anything around him was deadly, not to mention he can do it in quick succession. The trick here would be finding out the gap between the power use and the range it has.

The two Narutos heading for him first landed on the pillar half way up. They split up one going for the front the other for the back of the target with a timed interval in place. The first one was to materialize directly behind the Pein and attempt to stab him in the back of the head.

It dodged with only a single movement of its head. The next moment a spinning elbow caught the clone in the head, dispersing it in a thick cloud of smoke. With its vision obscured it allowed the second Naruto to move from the front to attack, the moment the straight kick was about to connect it was blown away with the dust as the God realms power was released.

The clone disappeared with a grin on its face in another puff of smoke as it was hit with a solid wall of gravity.

The next moment though saw the clouds darken as winds begin to rage in a circle in the center of the six pillars. The original Naruto was upside down above the crater, almost seeming to hover in the wind looking completely at peace in the savage winds.

He smirked as his wind storm kicked up all the dust in the area around them, blocking all in view as if they were in a sandstorm.

He watched as his clones moved to engage the demon, animal, and hungry ghost realms in close combat while the others attacked the human and hell realms from long range using quick **Fuuton **and **Suiton **jutsu to their annoyance.

He watched as his gamble with animal realm paid off as the seals quickly spread from their binding up across all that they came in contact with.

This just happened to include the animal realm.

The scrolls were a single seal set he had created simply called _Garandou. _The original idea he had gotten going back over Jiraya's notes on sealing and summoning. Sealing is something that was different from person to person, everyone learned, experimented, and sometimes died because of their ways. Naruto's concept of it was based upon the _Shishin_, the four legendary symbols. Based on this he approached it with the five elements in mind, earth in the east, fire in the south, wind in the west, water in the north, void in the center, they all mix in certain ways and react in others depending upon the mix. _Garandou_ is the only seal he ever created, could create based purely on the center power of the void.

A summoning was in a way nothing more then an incredibly complex seal, approximately five hundred and above depending upon the size and capacity of the summon involved. For the summon to work a medium of blood, something born of all of the four outer elements was used to draw the summon animal out along a balanced line of the void. The _Garandou _was in itself a seal drawn completely of the void to destroy the balance, without the balance the creature could not come through without more power from the elements, or blood, so much blood in fact that it would probably require the slaughter of a town to achieve. And even then the idea of summoning something like Gamabunta was out of the question entirely.

So getting to see the small look of surprise on the animal realms face when he couldn't summon that infernal dog of his as his clones engaged him in Tai-jutsu combat made him quite happy inside.

As easily as breathing he moved through a series of hand signs at a blazing speed. Stopping on the _tori _sign he began to spin like a top as he made his decent to the ground. Spinning faster and faster as the winds picked up pace around him, forming a small scale tornado with winds moving at a pace close to a hundred meters a second.

At the last second before he hit the righted himself while thrusting his arms out to his side blowing the entire tornado outwards. Stone and earth all were whipped away from him as easily as bodies he wanted to end. **"Fuuton: Sanyuu Fuujin no jutsu! **(Wind style: Coming of the wind god technique).

He had tweaked this technique specifically for this fight. The god realm's ability would prove an interruption if only for a moment with the high speed winds though it would only be stopped for a second, not cancelled out. However he knew that the god realm wouldn't even use his power, for one anything in this wind could kill him if he wasn't paying attention, even if he did stop the debris in the wind for a moment more would simply replace it, he couldn't see, and the clincher was their was no chakra involved in the wind. The jutsu simply started up the wind and made it pick up speed, the end result came about by him forcing it out with a small shockwave of chakra and widening the base of it. The Hungry Ghost realm would get little to nothing out of the attack as any chakra was too far spread out for it to actually absorb and it was too far from Naruto to catch him for it. His clones had all dispersed as soon as the wind hit, with them his analysis of the Peins abilities would begin so he could eliminate any that remained after his next move.

Palms still out stretched he began to spin once again, as he did so the winds that had been spreading out stopped like they hit a wall and began to spin following his movements yet again. Eventually he settled himself in a medium level horse stance all the while still circulating his arms, increasing wind speed and forming a dome of wind that held all within.

"Now you can't escape Pein! This wind will hold us here until one of us is dead!"

Guessing at what was going to happen the demon, human and hell realms rushed at him at high speeds. Demon, already in its asura form began to fire its missals from its arms in mid-flight as the boosters in its legs kicked it off the ground towards him faster then the rest.

Never once shifting his feet as the missals came towards him, Naruto barely seemed to touch them all at high speeds, redirecting them away from him. In this raging storm he was in his element as he subtly commanded the wind and air around him forming small pockets of cushioned air in his hands. Yet as the demon realm reached him, tail snapping forward with the intention to skewer him, he once again simply seeming to touch the tail with both of his palms, diverting it away from his body, yet just as it finished passing by him the wind in his palms quickly pushed of with all the power of a gale. In a quick two step movement as gracefully as a falling leaf caught in a breeze around the demon realm, he had returned to the mirror of where he was once before. Yet as calm as the winds can be, they can also be a raging tempest, moving with the speed of the hurricane he formed before; he channeled Nature chakra into his body and swung out an arm into the back of the demon realm, shattering it on impact just as the hell and human closed within striking distance.

He quickly then rolled to the side before jumping away in an effort to gain distance from the two. He knew their touch was deadly and just because Konohamaru had managed to escape alive it had only been because of surprise and the need for information. He could not make the same mistake.

Worse yet is he knew he couldn't let Hell get any closer to the shattered remains of Demon. He had heard that just before his first battle with Pein Demon had been all but destroyed by Kakashi, Choji and Choza, yet when he first fought and destroyed it, it was good as new. It was only after the Konoha Cryptography and Intelligence teams managed to crack into _Konan's _mind did they find out though.

Frowning as he was forced to reveal this so early he flicked open several of the pouches along his vest. The things that came pouring out were not scrolls or kunai, but leaves, the very same leaf of their symbol. Immediately the leaves were caught on the winds swirling around this arena, there seemed to be no end to them, yet any one with a _Byakugan_ or _Sharingan _would be able to tell they weren't normal leaves.

This was proven to the Hell realm quickly as he got too close to them as in a puff of smoke it was replaced with an annoyed Naruto with **Rasengan** in hand.

And then in face.

As soon as it made contact, he sent a quick needle of sharpened chakra straight through the wall of the shell keeping the swirling maelstrom in check. The needle was kind enough to stab the Hell realm in the eye as it came out; it gave him a nice warning before the orb broke through the hole, unleashing the torrent of power directly into its face, blasting it back into the walls of wind.

For a moment there the wind seemed to take on a red tinge before quickly disappearing with the body.

Just as quickly as he had first appeared near the hell realm he had disappeared in the swirl of leaves.

A lance of pain then flickered along the link they all shared coming from the Hungry Ghost realm, causing all eyes to turn towards it.

Right before it fell forward unable to move. As it fell towards the ground the multitude of Kunai sticking out of it along seven of the vital kill points became visible. In a matter of seconds it had its spine severed, One in the Jugular artery, one in the kidney, one in each lung, one in the Carotid artery, several in the liver, and one driven all the way through its heart with the tip showing on the front. Standing directly behind it was Naruto who was absentmindedly throwing a kunai up into the air and catching it again.

"What will you do Pein, this is my domain your in now, the god has moved to fight a demon, and it looks like your losing so far." He said in a mocking tone while ramming the last Kunai into the body's head, through the brain.

"It matters not; your capture is as always assured."

A short morbid laugh came from him at that. "Which is exactly why you will lose, Pein… or should I say Nagato?"

"The one you speak of is long…"

"Cut the bullshit, we've been in Konan's mind!" He yelled back.

Raw chakra erupted away from him in torrents as he released the full force of his rage, his power and his intent. The ground shuddered in his feet; dust and stone seemed to dissolve all around him as his aura smothered all. "**TODAY IS YOUR END!" **He yelled as his voice became demonically influenced, his eyes gaining slits showing the Kyuubi's minimal influence.

With barely a thought two clones were at his sides, standing with his arms out stretched they began the movements for the age old technique. The entirety of his aura seemed to be being channeled into the space between them, forming an orb. Soon the very raging winds around them seemed to be being siphoned into their hands. Eventually the power began to take the shape, in its center was a pure white orb about the size of a human head, as it continued to spin thousands of blade like rips began to form along its surface. As the blades expanded the raging winds around them came to a stop as all they were was channeled, yet even the former roar of the wind was nothing compared to sound coming from the orbs now.

Knowing that this would be decided now the human and animal realms fell to the ground as they stopped receiving chakra. Now the only one standing was the God realm, just as it had been years ago as it made this crater. Launching itself into the air high above the city it gathered the power it needed into one final attack.

As the technique reached completion Naruto launched himself into the air as his clones dispersed. Raising one Rasengan wielding arm above his head as he went, aimed directly at the god realm.

"SHINRA TENSEI!" He would end this now; the force of a god could not be stopped by a man or a demon. The force of gravity, multiplied a thousand times all forcing downwards. Air dust, moisture, all would become a virtual bullet moving with that force, the force that destroyed this land before.

Yet he kept coming, spiraling orb in hand overhead. It seemed to cut through all in front of it, stone shattered, water blown away, the very air seemed to part before the force it exerted. The force should have killed him yet he kept coming.

For Naruto the shockwave of power lasted only an instant as he broke through the wave, moving like an arrow locked onto his target. As he broke through the first of two Rasengans disappeared, its power following the wave downward to the ground, creating almost a boost of speed.

He saw it all in slow motion he couldn't dodge in mid air as he stared at that spiraling death. Yet the expected blow, the pain never came. A fist hand seemed to close around his neck yet he was without the power to do anything as his chakra forced its way inside his body. It seemed to probe his brain and the receivers until a small grim smile found its way across Naruto's face.

Leaning close to the God realms ear he whispered two words that shook him to the core as a grasping feeling ripped through his body. "Found you.

Looking to the side through his eyes he could see it now, trace its feel.

He could see the link through the receivers.

He could see his prey.

And he smiled.

From his position in the air he took a quick not out of Sasuke's book, performing the opening kick for his old _Shishi Rendan_, sending the God realm crashing down to the ground into his own crater.

As he entered free fall, he quickly summoned a clone that grabbed him by his Rasenganless arm. A quick spin in mid air gathered all the momentum they would need as the clone threw the original into the tree lines outside the village.

Landing with a rough crash onto the ground, he started running without breaking momentum at high speeds. He followed the thread at seeming as nothing more then a blur to any passers. All wildlife fled in fear as they felt his aura and heard the overbearing shredding noise as the orb cut through the air, gaining in size.

Eventually breaking away from the trees he followed the thread to a shrine of an unknown god. There, standing at the door way was a thin man, sweating heavily in a pure white robe, holding a monks staff in his hands. He was an exact match, the very same face given to him by the interrogators after they ripped open Konan's mind. Black hair in a pony tail yet with the bangs on the right side almost at eye level.

Yet the one last piece to prove it was him was the eyes he had, those eyes with water ripple pupil, the _Rin'negan._

Within an instant the distance had closed. Rage danced in his eyes as he thrust the orb forward. The ground shook with its power as he screamed over the noise.

"**Fuuton:**** Doki no Fukyuu Fuujin **(Wrath of the immortal wind god)

Ground ripped apart in an instant, trees all around were blown away as the winds were released. The very air itself boomed outwards breaking the speed of sound blowing all away in the blast area. The area it covered was approximately five miles in all directions from the central point. Then once it hit that max radius.

It imploded.

Every ounce of debris, every molecule of air all converged on one central swirling mass that was now lodged inside Nagato's body. Everything in that wind became a weapon, a blade of grass had the power to cut through skin and bode, a pebble was as effective as a bullet, a tree… well it would hurt. Combined with the release of chakra, billions of needle like blades of wind all attacked him at once, piercing through his body, destroying him on a cellular level. The attack was reminiscent of the **Rasenshuriken **he had created two years ago, it build upon the concepts already laid by the attack, showering the enemy in an endless barrage of wind that attacked almost like a poison. An attack that would end any ninja's career, one way or another. It was built upon because of his increased wind control from both his affinity and his sealing mastery; it was his end game move, his trump card for any fight and still be able to stand. The trick came in fooling his opponents thought as even at his speed it was hard to get a ninja to stand still for any length of time, so he would always create it in one hand while the other held the incomplete Rasenshuriken. Most opponents' couldn't tell the difference in the attack without being either incredibly chakra sensitive or a wind master along his level.

He began walking away calmly as the attack finally finished and the body started to free fall. In reality it couldn't even be called a body anymore, the attack had left him as nothing more then splattered mass of blood and organs barely held together by mere chance.

In retrospect he should have been paying more attention to what was going on around him. He thought the fight was over; the intelligence bureau had managed to find that Pein was the only one in the area from the main Akatsuki, even if their minor forces at Konoha's doorstep tried anything now it would only result in disaster for them. Yet he had forgotten one thing that he should have remembered from his past.

Akatsuki always travel in pairs.

And so when the familiar blade of a Chokuto came out the front of his body right through his heart he was completely caught off guard.

The addition of having a good couple a thousand volts of electricity didn't help at all.

"So it seems your predictions came true once again, sensei." Came the smooth voice of his childhood friend.

"Of course, did you ever doubt me?" Came the calm voice of the man possibly considered the strongest alive.

Immediately recognizing that voice, recognizing what one foolish move could do to him right now, Naruto closes his eyes.

"Hmm stubborn aren't you, it would be so much easier for you to give in now wouldn't it. Sasuke, open his eyes." He said, standing directly in front of him now.

Suddenly the blade twisted sending a new shock of pain through his body. When he still refused to open his eyes, the blade was slowly dragged upwards through his body, eventually coming to a stop in his lung.

"I admire your spirit however my patience is not eternal."

"Fuck you." He growled out before coughing out a large amount of blood.

Slowly he attempted to raise his hand; each second seemed like agony as his nerves roared on fire. After what seemed like an hour of struggling against the pain he managed to grasp hold of the blade, stopping it from moving any farther.

Drawing up the entirety of his chakra remaining he slowly began to convert it into wind natured. Quickly noticing the small smile that managed its way onto his face Madera shouted a warning to Sasuke telling him to let go of the sword. The warning came a moment too late as the pure wind chakra in the shape of a blade forced its way out of Naruto's body, nullifying the lightning as it went. Following the lightning back to its source the blade coming out of his back shot outwards, taking Sasuke's hand with it. Madera had gotten out of the way and had moved to Sasuke's side instantly to inspect the damage.

Finally free of the sword and its chakra Naruto fell forwards as darkness clouded his vision. Catching himself on his hands and knees he began to vomit up blood, clearing the dead cells from his body as the Kyuubi's chakra began to move. As he began to lose consciousness he felt a pulling sensation coming from the seal, almost as if he was being drawn into a hole the size of a pin. The feeling continued to grow stronger, until it felt as if his body was being ripped apart from the inside, forcing himself to open his eyes if only for a moment he realized he was no longer in the forests.

For a moment he screamed as the image was burned into his mind. It was like staring into liquid fire, a realm of darkness and chaos with no order to keep it balanced. It was a gapping hole in the universe that flashed by ever changing collapsing in on itself and being remade again. He saw beings of all shapes and sizes, creatures of shadow and of night, beasts that preyed on the life force of others, sucking them dry to the point of being shriveled husks. Foul humanoid looking creatures that used powers that raised the dead, cast creatures into oblivion, power over plagues, over suffering and death. Creatures of fire and rock, mindless behemoths with only the instinct to kill.

And at the center of this all, he saw it.

A titanic being of black armor that seemed to draw in the light, it was as if it was the abyss itself. A face of corrupted perfection, once possibly the most beautiful thing he would ever lay eyes upon, ruined by demonic horns reaching behind its head. Its mane and beard were the same demonic green flames that wrapped around its body. In its hands was a great sword, its pommel was a green orb the size of 'its' fist, the hilt split upwards around the blade like the jaws of a beetle, a pattern of green and black moving up it. The blade itself was a black the same as the armor drawing in all light, yet what terrified him the most of all was the feel it gave him, the blade seemed to radiate evil, no evil wasn't even a word to describe the feeling of being around it, being near the Kyuubi for all his life made him know what evil was, this, THING, made even the beast look like a fly in comparison, this thing just was death, it was the end of everything in an existence, that was the only way to describe it, the end.

Yet no mater how hard he tried to run away, he could not move, he felt as if he was drowning, being buried alive and suffocating all at once. The over bearing pressure kept him firmly rooted there. He couldn't scream any more, he could already feel the inside of his throat ripped to pieces by it earlier, he knew if he did now though he would die. Simply existing there for any length of time, he felt as if centuries past by in those few moments, all he could do was watch as the horrors unfolded before his eyes. He saw this MONSTER laying waste to everything in its path, nothing could stop it, worlds burned in his passing, others simply ceased to exist, and ever once did it even acknowledge his presence around it. Yet in all this time he found his eyes drifting to one spot in particular, a single scratch along its armor on its leg, no matter how long he watched he knew it would not go away.

That thought gave him a minute hope.

And with that he passed out.

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It had taken an instant, his entire life before his imprisonment had flashed before his eyes. He felt his rage stirring, he felt the collar slipping loose from his neck, he felt no pain, yet no joy. The rogue was still behind him, the warrior still in front, neither dared to make a sound.

And then it dropped, falling from his neck was the collar, as it hit the ground it seemed as if all sound was nothing but a whisper compared to the noise it made.

The knife slowly was forced out of his neck as his power came to the surface. His rage was palpable, it permeated the air as it had years ago, everyone in the room felt the chilling effect of it, none dared even breathing. The _Musei Hakaisha _was reborn, and as before he was out for blood.

"**So you remember now don't you brat."**

Swinging his arm to the left he seemed to bat the rogue away as if he was nothing. Skipping across the ground it eventually came to a stop when its skull broke open on the wall. Walking slowly forward now towards the warrior, he secured his grip on _Verigan's Fist. _With one mighty swing of the hammer he shattered every bone in the little warrior's body without even a moment's remorse.

"_Aye. NOW, lets go show our former master just how stupid a move enslaving us was!"_

He saw them still fighting, Sicco was now on the defensive as his machine had taken too much damage from both Gelbin's indestructible sword and the lightning gun. The moment he laid eyes upon the putrid green form of his former master the rage he tried to keep bottled up exploded forth.

Letting loose a chilling roar he rushed forward towards Sicco and his machine. The roar was all that was needed to alert the two to what had happened as both heads turned just to catch a glimpse of the hammer that was thrown like a torpedo with enough force to go straight through the machine body of Sicco's creation. Naruto was not far behind, before the hammer had even made a foot past the metal body he had his fist buried itself up to the shoulder in electrical machinery, reaching its way to the cockpit. Electricity danced along his nerves sending searing pain through his entire body.

"_**THIS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE PAIN YOU PUT ME THROUGH!" **_Came the monstrous combined voices of both beings inside the body, acting as one.

Gelbin could do nothing but stare in fear as he watched his enemy literally be ripped through the body of his creation out of the cockpit.

Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg knew only true fear as he faced the wrath of the beast he sought to contain. He felt his very soul in pain as the hand closed around his body and began to rip it out of the cockpit. When he came out though, face to face with the monster he shackled for so long he could only stare into those eyes. For they were not what they once were, neither the calming blue or the raging red. They were a solid deep purple, lacking even a pupil, they seemed to glow with ethereal power as he felt his entire world closing around him.

"_**So you thought you could contain me, you thought that you could chain me to your will, MAKE ME YOUR SLAVE! You have no idea what you were dealing with mortal, you are NOTHING, and for the price of your sins your death is assured." **_The combined voice growled before slamming his frail body into a wall, pinning him there.

"_**However you still owe me answers wretch."**_

Fear was etched onto Sicco's face as he tried everything he could to pry his eyes from that gaze. "Anything, ANYTHING! Please spare me!" Came the maddened cry.

"_**Who was the demon who implanted his power into the collar, WHO WAS IT THAT DARED TO STAND UP AGAINST ME?"**_

"Kil'jaden, it was Kil'jaden my lord! He made me a deal, promised me power, the throne of Gnomeregan, he promised me I would be king and have the power to subjugate all in my way!" Sicco cried out almost hysterical now.

"_**So it was a demon named Kil'jaden, obviously a relatively powerful one at that. How did you bring me here?! Answer me worm." **_ The twin entities mused.

"Part of our deal, using some of his power along with my machinery I was able to tear a portal into the _Twisting Nether _for a few moments where I was able to bring find you and bring you here! Then the collar was placed on you, it was meant to destroy the previous memories from before the collar was put on, turning you into a drone for me to control! Please master I'm sorry!"

"_Twisting Nether, could he possibly mean?"_

"**I'm guessing so, our knowledge of this world seems to be sub-standard at best right now."**

"_**Last question little worm." **_He said as smoothly as that voice would allow. _**"I came with a crystal necklace around my neck, WHERE IS IT?"**_ He roared.

Noticing the look that promised pain if he answered wrong Sicco quickly blurted it out in fear. "The troggs! The troggs have it! When you first came through I experimented with it for a few weeks, it was like nothing I had ever seen before! When I couldn't find any use for it I gave it to the trogg chieftain to bargain with!" Right before his eyes he watched as his former slaves eyes continued to grow darker and darker as it processed what it heard.

"_**VERY. STUPID. MOVE."**_

"PLEASE, don't do it! Spare me, SPARE ME!" Sicco begged.

"_**Don't worry, I don't intend to kill you now…" **_He said as his eyes began to return to the bright blue they once were, still without a pupil.

"THANK YOU, YOU WONT EVER HEAR FROM OR SEE ME AGAIN MASTER!" Sicco said, visibly starting to relax as he thought his life was no longer in danger.

"NO, death is to quick for you." He said with a grin, showing his fangs, as his eyes shifted to a blood red in an instant. "Instead I'll simply let you suffer, **Magen: Sesshoku no Naikaen **(Demonic illusion: Feeding of the Dead Flame)**."**

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For Sicco, it seemed as if the world around him bled to black, he felt nothing, no ground to support him, almost as if he was floating in air.

And then he felt it, looking down he found himself now bound to an X shaped post, and directly below him was what at best resembled one of the ancient dragons of legend.

Yet it was nothing but bones, nothing, no skin or muscle to hold it together, all that was alive in it was a pair of yellow glowing eyes. It reached up suddenly, craning its neck to look at him, he could hear the creaking of its bones as it moved, feel its cold breath upon him even without lungs to breath.

And then it snapped forward moving at a speed he could hardly comprehend, tearing skin and muscles from his left leg first, it even seemed to grin as a flap of his skin hung from its maw on one of its skeletal teeth.

He tried screaming but the moment his mouth opened the beast tore his wind pipe out of his throat, yet he continued to live.

And it continued taking chunks from him, fingers and toes, limbs and organs all were ripped from his body, it continued until the remains of his body were nothing but tattered scraps.

It was then that the true horror began as blood dripped from the dragon's maw; it let out a hollow, soulless laugh that chilled him to the core. For a moment he passed out from the pain, when he came to he was once again feeling nothing at all.

Looking down, seeing that his body was once again whole he breathed out a sight of relief, and then he heard it that laugh once again as the skeletal dragon materialized before him, yet this time it came with two skeletal heads.

It continued to laugh as it tore into him with the same fury as it had before, it was then he realized that it would not stop.

All he could do was screamed.

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The moment the name of his technique reached his ears he had already dropped the body. It would take a good few minutes before he would start screaming in reality so he had plenty of time to leave before he got a headache.

"**And you say I'm sadistic, putting an already relatively insane mind into a gen-jutsu that will repeat till it's broken, getting progressively stronger the longer its rooted in the mind."**

"_He deserved no less, besides you would have just ripped him apart once, that's far to quick for the damage of god knows how many years as slaves."_

"**And what about the witness? I'd kill him as he's still a possible threat."**

"_Yes and that's your opinion for everything, you wonder why I ignored you for a good two years before this mess, its because that's all your suggestions were, all the time."_ Naruto responded sarcastically.

"**Bah, and if you had done as I'd said we wouldn't be in this mess right now would we." **The fox retorted with a growl.

"_If I remember correctly that was you who managed to get us stuck in… whatever the hell realm that was, that Twisting Nether as he called it."_ He returned with an internal shudder.

"**It was a place for demons brat, not humans, even one such as you. And I beg to differ on that part, I only brought us there in the first place because we got stabbed by someone I told you REPATEDLY to kill, but NO you had to go and be mister moral. Lookie brat if you had killed him any of the other times I told you to we could have gotten around this entire situation."**

"_We'd still have Madera to deal with, and you and me both know I would only have a chance of winning against him with your help which you couldn't give me without turning into a mindless little slave again now could it." _He retorted in a mocking voice like he was chastising a four year old.

"**Bah, see what I care, ignore my help if you will but just remember brat." **He could feel the damn thing grinning behind its bars right now. **"You should probably put some pants on, you may have been without them for a few years but that's still no excuse."**

The fox knew he had hit home the moment the blush of embarrassment came over his hosts face. _"Damn fox, go back to growing your opposable thumbs and leave me the hell alone."_ Even he was ashamed at that comeback; honestly he had been without company for too long. Scrapping together what was left of his dignity after that conversation he cut off the link and turned to face Gelbin.

"I would advise staying in this room for the remainders of your stay true king it would be most beneficial for your health. Tell your men that are in the halls to stay the hell out of my way and we'll not have any problems. If they cross me though I'll simply assume you're an enemy and come back to finish you." He said in a serious tone before becoming all irritated. "NOW, I need to find that necklace and a pair of damn pants." Were the last words he said before turning and calmly walking away.

Junk swinging all the way.

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And here it is, the first chapter of my third story, _Will of the King._ I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did at bits. As I'm guessing several questions need to be answered before I get any rest later I figured ill try now.

First of all, time wise, Naruto coming out of Gnomeregan now is roughly twenty two to twenty three, basically he was eighteen when he was caught and had been held in their under a collar for a good four years. Now for the time frame in the Warcraft world, basically I'm looking at essentially two years after the start of World of Warcraft, basically Outland is open as is Northrend. Maybe ill send him to one of those two when I get the chance but at the moment I'm currently undecided.

Now power level, ok with all the advantages Naruto has for serious training it isn't even really fair to try and calculate this. First of all he has Kage Bunshin, a technique that has the user learn everything the clone learned in its life time. Second of all you have sage chakra now which can result in a massive physical boost as well as a boost in all nin-jutsu AND Gen-jutsu. Thirdly you have the Kyuubi no Yoko, a demon FOX, if you go by legends then you know that fox's are natural illusionists. Combine all this together you have a super physically and mentally strong Naruto, add in kage Bunshin's learning effect and think over a time of two years serious training using them and for just wind training he had like what only one hundred, I'm talking in the thousands of clones daily though, he may not be at Madera's level of pure ownage but he was close with the fox.

Any other questions you have simply toss em in a review and ill get back to you about it when I can.

Until next time.

Stephen Wolfgang.


	2. Freedom and the Ghosts of the Past

Last chapter.

"_We'd still have Madera to deal with, and you and me both know I would only have a chance of winning against him with your help which you couldn't give me without turning into a mindless little slave again now could it." _He retorted in a mocking voice like he was chastising a four year old.

"**Bah, see what I care, ignore my help if you will but just remember brat." **He could feel the damn thing grinning behind its bars right now. **"You should probably put some pants on, you may have been without them for a few years but that's still no excuse."**

The fox knew he had hit home the moment the blush of embarrassment came over his hosts face. _"Damn fox, go back to growing your opposable thumbs and leave me the hell alone."_ Even he was ashamed at that comeback; honestly he had been without company for too long. Scrapping together what was left of his dignity after that conversation he cut off the link and turned to face Gelbin.

"I would advise staying in this room for the remainders of your stay true king it would be most beneficial for your health. Tell your men that are in the halls to stay the hell out of my way and we'll not have any problems. If they cross me though I'll simply assume you're an enemy and come back to finish you." He said in a serious tone before becoming all irritated. "NOW, I need to find that necklace and a pair of damn pants." Were the last words he said before turning and calmly walking away.

Junk swinging all the way.

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_Freedom and the Ghosts of the Past_

Gnomeregan was truly an impressive city. A fortress of science and technology, forged into the very earthen mountains that gave birth too many of the marvels found within its walls. Built hundreds of meters below the ground level, it should have been an impregnable fortress with more advanced security measures in place all over the city then there was ANBU at the start of the end wars. Its fall was a tragic one forged through betrayal and a demonic hand. _"Probably make an interesting read one day." _Naruto mused as the steel doors of the Tinker Court closed behind him, in his hand was the very gun that blew a whole through his chest. In front of him he could without a doubt make out the scene of a battle. He stood at the end of a long rising two-tiered hallway, on his left was a trench in the metal for the lower level while the right stayed the same height. Machine parts were strewn all over the place, and in the right corner he could see a black-skinned dwarf creature wearing a purple-reddish robe with its head cracked open laying against the wall.

"**Pants. Now." **The fox ground out in exasperation.

"_Ya, ya your bitchiness." _He answered dismissively while walking towards the downed dwarf.

It had only taken him a minute to do a quick field check of the dwarf's equipment he ransacked it. The robes the dwarf wore were obviously too small for him without a doubt however with a little time…

"This is a public broadcast to all citizens, invited and uninvited of the great city of Gnomeregan." Gelbin's small voice crackled across the speaker systems of the city, the sound echoed through the metal hallways with ease as everyone heard.

"The former High Tinker Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg is now dead, Gnomeregan is now under the control of the Council of Tinkers until a new High Tinker is elected. To all members of the council security forces, the control center has been retaken, I repeat the Tinkers Court has been retaken!" his voice cheered across the airwaves, further down the tunnel Naruto could make out the cheers of several people.

"_Now lets see just how intelligent you really are True king, will you heed my warning or not." _Naruto mused as he finished his temporary wardrobe. He had managed to tear in certain section the main body piece of the robe and had then used the belt to keep it wrapped around his waist. The remaining shoulder pieces were then strapped along his forearms for some added defense.

"**That thing will fall apart if someone even sneezes on it."** The fox snorted.

"_If you have any better ideas oh magnificent fox lord I would love to hear them._" Naruto retorted, his voice laced heavily with sarcasm.

"All forces in the city, be wary of a human-elf cross breed with long red hair, do not engage, I repeat DO NOT ENGAGE. Remaining forces are to begin routing maneuvers against the trogg threat, biological toxin counter agent is to be released into the air ducts in ten minutes, and all re-breathers are to be equipped before that time. Once agent is released breathers are not to be released until agent has gone through all stages of progression." Gelbin continued.

"**Well I would enjoy covering your hairless disgrace of a body in fur, but ****you're already temper-mental enough about being an immortal half-demon." **

"It now has its perks fox." Naruto conceded, intriguing the fox.

"**What the hell happened to your stubborn bullheadedness towards it."** It asked honestly curious.

"_I don't know how long we will be here, nor do I even know where I am in the first place, second of all I intend to go back but I need a way to get there, third of all we have a demon to kill and I don't know how long that will take us."_ Naruto stated with a shrug.

"**There's more you're not telling me kit."**

"It gives me time to complete what he asked of me."Naruto spoke aloud in almost a whisper before beginning to walk down the hallway as Gelbin continued to shout orders over the intercom.

"_I promised him I would carry on his dream, and this gives me the ability to do it, for once I should be thanking you."_

The fox simply grunted before receding from his mind.

As he continued to walk up the long hallway, passing the bodies of the destroyed machines he eventually stopped in front of a second large metal door, from the cracks in the metal he noticed a faint smell he hadn't had the pleasure of knowing in years. Fresh air. "Well," He started with a grunt and a roll of his shoulders and neck. "Time to hunt a bloody trogg." And so without a sound he once again vanished from sight as his _Fumeizatsuki _jutsu kicked in at a moments notice.

A second later the door opened revealing a monstrous room, the upper floor where he stood wrapped all the way around the circular room, machines with engines and what looked like wings were littered all over the place. All along the path were the bodies of leper gnomes, some with lost limbs, and others showing signs of being burned or frozen. On the lower level was another path leading back the way he came from what he could see. The path down there was guarded by close combat robots along with more of the dark skinned dwarves, curiously enough they didn't seem to bother going through the path and looping around to stop Gelbin. At one point in the room's walkway it split off into the center of the room, a central platform stood there, two gnomes battled ferociously against each other atop of it. The gnome that looked to be from the gnome council forces was in a full plate kind of armor, wielding a two handed axe black axe with red runes all over it, he swung the axe around like it was nothing. The other was another leper gnome sitting in a mechanical spider suit, the front claws of it seemed to be using electricity to fend off the warrior's attacks.

Judging by the various cackling sentences that the leper spouted out one conclusion could be drawn.

He's bloody effing insane.

Seeing as neither of the rooms occupants had noticed his entrance he simply followed his nose towards the open air. Quickly walking around the golden walkway he proceeded towards the door at the other end of the cavernous room. When he got close enough the door opened to another winding tunnel with a loud grinding sound that made him wince.

Turning back quickly he found the two in the launch bay as he now saw in the big sign above his head, hadn't noticed or if they had were too busy to care. Deciding not to test his luck with this frustrating city any longer he ran forward along the tunnel walls to avoid stepping or tripping on any of the bodies.

"Follow the scent of fresh air and the path of dead bodies, heh what a joke._" _He snorted while banking a left.

Only to find one little robot in the middle of the hallway, it almost seemed to be an average gnome height. The moment the words had left his mouth the robot with its highly advanced sound detection turned directly towards him.

The machine was a bronze color, it seemed simple when he looked at it, the legs were built off of a central pivot piece, most likely designed as hips. The legs on it seemed to rock it back and forwards as it turned to face him. Attached to the pivot piece was a central rod that most likely acted as the robots spine, branching off of that was its two little stubby arms. At the back of its head were the words on a gold plate _Alarm-a-Bomb 2600._

What made Naruto stop in his tracks though were two things.

It had fog horns for hands and a big red revolving light for a head.

A pregnant pause soon came as the two simply looked at each other. He dared not even breathe as long as it was in the hall. _"I want just two simple things, fuck kami hates me, two things, two things is that so much to ask. I want my god damn necklace and I want to get the bloody hell out of here! Is that honestly so much to ask!?"_

The stood there for minutes at a time, simply waiting for the alarm bot to move away. It only moved several minutes later as the far door opened down the hall as a trogg walked through the door. Turning on its little mechanical heels it scampered off towards the trogg to silence the noise. The moment it walked around the corner and through the door he let out the breath he was holding allowing a deep sigh to escape his lips.

Seconds later an alarm sounded as the _Alarm-a-Bomb_ came back around the corner, sirens blazing towards him. On the other side of the door he could clearly here the movement of other machines as well as more humanoid sounds all moving towards him. Inside the machines chest cavity he could see a counter form as it ran towards him, slowly ticking down, a small fuse seemed to be sizzling as it ran.

"Ah for fucks sake!" He growled before disappearing behind the stunned bot and rounding the corner.

The little _Alarm-a Bomb _fell to pieces in a mangled pile of junk as soon as the door closed.

As soon as he rounded the corner and passed through the door way he came face to face with something that had him twitching in irritation. He was once again at the bottom floor of an incredibly large stone based room. Or at least it looked that way, when it came to gnomes from what he could tell you could never be sure. In the center of the room was a leaning pillar of metal that jutted out at an odd angle, it now rested along the side wall of the cavern. The connectors to the pillar had all fallen down to the ground floor, laying in shattered pieces.

He wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to get up there but he would find a way towards his necklace.

He was twitching though because all the noise he had heard just before he had rounded the corner was gone.

No mechanical monstrosities trying to shoot him, blow him up, or crush him flat as a pancake.

No insane leper gnomes trying to stab his shins out of rage.

Hell not even a single one of the gnome forces to explain why it was so quiet now.

No, all that was left was a whole lot of little puddles of green glowing goo. Grinding his teeth in irritation at his own paranoia he began to walk forwards towards the central pillar as the ominous silence in the room pressed down on him.

"_So, figure I can still do the wall walking after a few years of absence?" _He joked to the fox.

"**Hmmm… if it helps to know that if you fall and crack your skull open you have me to yell at you." **The fox groused seemingly waking up.

Rolling his eyes in amusement at the fox's attempted humor he settled into the ram hand sign and closed his eyes to concentrate. In all honesty he actually couldn't recall the last time he consciously tried to draw on his chakra, everything up to this point had been sheer instinct ground into his body through training thousands of hours using each technique with his clones. It actually rather disturbed him that he didn't know where he stood right now, he knew over the years his physical state might have improved (far more then he may have wanted too but that may be fixable) but his control had probably slipped drastically. In the past it had taken him almost daily training with his Kage Bunshin to gain the control needed for even the most basic of gen-jutsu, it had taken this method for almost a year and a half to get him to the point where he was before his coming, that and he didn't even want to think about his Senjutsu chakra. And so he wasn't surprised when what had been at one point almost as easy as breathing required substantial effort on his part. When he figured he had as much as he needed for his short climb he stepped his foot up to stick it to the wall.

Or he tried to as he couldn't seem to move his feet anymore. Shinobi training kicked in at this point telling him to move as all his instincts screamed danger. Leaping upwards towards the pillar he ripped his foot out of whatever had managed to catch it, his feet latched onto the metal pillar easily enough yet he had to strike out with a set of his claws to hold him in place in the metal.

"_Note to self, remember you need to compensate for gravitational energy as you change pos__itions from upright to vertical, just because your in another dimension or something like that doesn't mean the laws of physics don't exist."_

Looking back down towards where he was just standing Naruto to come to a quick analysis. _"What the fuck is that!?"_ Staring back up at him from the ground level was the same green goop that the floor had been covered in. He mentally berated himself at his own lack of concern since he woke up here, he shouldn't have underestimated anything in this world as he didn't know what was what yet here he was walking calmly past literally pulsing bright green thick blobs of goop. _"Well I at least now know what happened to whatever was on the other side of the door before I arrived."_ He admitted as he was mildly disturbed and intrigued by the slowly dissolving gnome shaped skull that was starring back at him with hollowed out eyes from the inside of one of the goops that was now moving towards him. Believing himself at a high enough level to not become a lunch meal for a gelatinous blob he let out a deep breath before turning to start climbing.

He groaned to himself when a certain thought came to mind, what if the chieftain was on this floor, which would mean his necklace had a chance of being right around here. Shinobi training instincts would never let him walk away from the room without checking every possible outcome. And so gradually he began to slide, using his claws as a guide to slow his descent he managed to softly land back on the ground.

Not wasting any time Naruto quickly disappeared almost as if a thick cloud had obscured him from view just as it would the moon. The sound of footsteps were barely a whisper even to the trained ear as he dodged and weaved his way in between and around the oozes, never once letting them get close enough to grab him. The noise he managed to make however was quite annoying though, he was usually far quieter then this.

"_More training." _He grumbled internally.

He was about to give up his search for the necklace and turn back towards the pillar yet something seemed to draw his attention. It was when the small amount of light in the room seemed to cause three small flashes at the same time, turning on the spot and moving at high speeds once again he came to a stop right near one of the chambers walls. At the base of the wall though were four things, one of which he needed, two of which made him curious, and a last that put him on guard.

His necklace that he had won from Tsunade was in the center.

Two silver bracelets each about a ten inches wide with four oval shaped emeralds in them, polished to an almost unnatural shine stood separated on either sides of the enhanced necklace.

And lastly was what he could only guess was a trogg skull due to how much more elongated it was compared to a regular human or even a gnomes, this was simply strewn near by the other three.

He wasn't exactly sure what it was that drew him here, if it was simply his own imagination, lady luck or something else. The fox was quiet, offering no advice to what he starred at. He didn't know how much time he had left anyway from what he had heard over the loud speakers if he didn't have a re-breather he wouldn't be able to get back in for quite some time, his body may have become more resilient over the past few years but that didn't mean he was willing to breathing in clouds of poison anytime soon. That and if he didn't take the necklace now he was sure someone else here would or one of those green globs would get it. Then again he wasn't sure what he was feeling right now, it was like he was in the sewer that was the Kyuubi's seal yet far enough away to only feel a minute amount of its energy. He knew demonic energy well enough but this was something different, it felt like being near almost a natural wellspring of natural energy but at the same time it seemed sour, tainted even, and the taint seemed to be coming directly from the bracelets. Realizing that time was not on his side at the moment he quickly dropped his illusion surrounding him and reached for the newly named memorial necklace.

Only for as soon as he had grabbed the necklace a fist that felt like diamond barreled into his jaw sending him flying.

Or he would have been flying if his arm hadn't snapped backwards just as quickly allowing yet another monstrously powerful fist to smash into his face, he already felt his vision fading from the blow. He easily felt his jaw shatter against the jarring impact from the blow. What's worse is that both his face and trapped arm now seemed to be burning painfully away at a slow rate. And the blows just didn't let up, a blow to the stomach knocked the wind from him causing him to stoop over, another blow came from below knocking him into the air for a second, he finally seemed to slip away almost as if he was pulling his hand out of water after one last blow sent him skidding across the ground.

"_You get the number of that Akimichi and the asshole who decided to open an all you can eat buffet?" _He groaned internally in pain; even if the fox was help numb some of it.

Eventually his vision started to return as the fox worked its magic, having him relatively together again in only a few minutes of being down. The completely shattered jaw though was another story entirely as he constantly had to spit out blood and bone fragments that had pierced right through his gums.

He stopped caring after seven of his teeth came out of his mouth in varying degrees of destruction.

"_Well would you look at that."_ He groaned as he finally saw what hit him.

The creature if it could even be called that was an entity for lack of a better word that stood only a few inches taller then him and as wide as a Gamakichi after the training trip. It was a monstrous behemoth of radioactive/acidic water and crystal the likes of which he had never seen before, every movement it made flowed freely as its own matter sprayed out behind it as it moved. He could assume where the head was in the beast from the golden yellow glowing eyes radiating from the chest extension. He definitely knew those had been the arms that were bashing his skull in because of an almost 4 inch thick coating of the same crystal like substance along them that seemed to spike backwards until it flowed as water again into the silver bracelet he had seen earlier.

At the center of it all though, behind the glowing eyes of this avatar of water, was the memorial necklace.

His eyes widened as his enhanced sight allowed him to watch as the acidic nature of the creature was slowly eating through the necklace, growing more crystal-like with every second.

He could only groan at the stupidity of what he was about to do to himself yet again but seeing no other way with his "lack" of jutsu available to him and receiving no help from the now sleeping fox he stood and activated _Fumeizatsuki._

Without making so much as a sound he took off in blur of speed. He ran with no set pattern, just simply letting his feet guide him where they wanted to go as he confused the searching elemental. Only a minute later he arrived behind the elemental, hand snapping forward through the acidic water and grasping the necklace, his seeming invisibility dropped the moment his fist closed over it. Knowing what was going to happen this time he quickly ripped his arm out of the body of water just as the back of the elemental crystallized.

The moment he was out of the elementals body he had already reappeared standing in front of it by a good few feet already looping the necklace around his neck. He seemed to let out a content sigh as the familiar weight dropped on to his neck as the five finger length crystals rested now upon his collar, one green, the others a dull grayish silver.

It had become a standard practice during the war that all bodies are to be cremated, leaving no trace as soon as they are brought back to the village. This was for two reasons as anyone who got their hands on a shinobi's body could gain valuable knowledge of their enemies, the second was to keep the bodies from piling up beyond what Konoha could handle. In the field no ceremony was to be provided, a simple fire jutsu was to be used and burned to until nothing but ashes, collect the ashes if possible and then return. In the village for the bodies that were brought back a proper cremation was given in front of the memorial stone while it still stood, later it was done atop its remains. After the body was burned to ash, the ashes were to be divided amongst the loved ones and family members in equal shares in a dull grey vile.

Upon his neck he held a quarter of the ashes of Tsunade the others had been held by her apprentices, he and Sakura each had half of Kakashi's who they had decided would go with his mask still on his face, one vial held his portion of the ashes from lost friends. The last one to be added though was all of Jiraiya's, it was on the one foolhardy raid they tried on Ame to try and take down Akatsuki at its source before they could make their move. It was a failure that brought back more dead then the living, Tsunade had died from her wounds at the doorstep of Konoha dragging Jiraiya's corpse all the way from the bottom of the Ame River. She had died in his arms grinning as she found him after a year. He couldn't help but be happy as he saw both had left the world with a smile and a grin on their faces.

A line from Jiraiya's first novel seemed to be brought into the world as these two left it. _"The measure of a shinobi's is not how he lives but how he dies, its not what they did in life but what they did before dying that proves their worth." _

Looking back over at the elemental he could see that whatever kind of crystal was coating its body was receding at a quick pace. _"Well at least now it won't feel like sakura just decked me with each hit." _He silently thanked while making another check over the necklace. _"Still, no need to continue this, I'm still on a time limit."_ He thought to himself before spinning quickly on his heels and vanishing from sight again. The elemental at that point had already begun moving towards him far faster then last time. The moment he vanished though it had been carved from one end to the other at the hip and to the shoulder. Naruto appeared once again back to the elemental facing the pillar, his right hands claws extended a good foot from his finger tips.

"_Note to self, sticking your hand in an acidic body of water is not a smart idea, actually it's quite painful." _He thought to himself while shaking the excess water off his hand and trying very hard to ignore the wisps of smoke emanating from his hand

He could feel the glare of the elementals eyes upon his back and could already hear the sound of rushing water heading for his body. Ducking under the heavy blow, he then quickly pivoted on his feet to the right and pushed off, whipping his claws once again through the watery body of the elemental, this time taking its arm off just below the bracelet. The acidic water dropped with a splash as it became disconnected from the main host.

Now facing the water creature he stepped quickly forward past its main body while delivering a palm strike through its head, the water seemed to shoot forward as if blasted by a cannon from the blow.

Moving completely on instinct from the force being applied to his shoulder, he swung around using the momentum from the punch, redirecting it past him, before snapping out with a quick round house kick. The blast of water was just like the last sending it scattering to the far walls.

His body started to burn like crazy as it was coated in more of the acidic water, he felt the his skin searing as smoke started to rise from his flesh. Every hit he landed was simply reformed a moment later, the water just eventually drained back towards the central mass.

"Why," Sharp jab through the beasts head with is claws extended.

"Wont," A bone breaking knee through its chest.

"You," A slash down the middle from head to toe.

"DIE?" He growled while doing a cross slash with both claws coated in red flames, his eyes had shifted to blood red once again.

"**Don't waste my chakra brat."**

"_Any brilliant ideas you old bastard." _He raged in aggravation

"**Aim for the bracelets you worthless brat!" **The fox responded with a roar at the insult.

With the precision that only comes from a man thoroughly pissed off Naruto manages to grasp hold of the bracelets. With a quick tug he had ripped them completely free of the watery body they previously held together, with one quick movement he had smashed the two to splinters. The string of curses that soon came from his mouth at realizing all his aggravation and wasted effort pummeling the thing to death could have easily been solved with minimal effort.

Yet the sudden wave of lethargy that overcame him almost made him fall to the floor right there. He felt like his entire body was wearing lead weights, he for a moment couldn't even move. His breath came in ragged pants as he slowly composed himself. _"What the hell, I know my stamina is better then this, hell I could have fought like that for hours before hand."_

Slowly he wobbled over towards the pillar where he dropped down to the floor, back to the pillar. "Well this sucks, seems I can't just go blowing shit up like I used to." He said to himself with a morbid laugh as his eyes glazed over. "Honestly never understood why my bingo book name was the silent destroyer. I mean I was hardly subtle with what I did. Iwa shinobi piss me off, I beat the crap out of them. Kiri shinobi annoy me for stealing their silent killing arts, I stab them in the back or the balls depending on how much they annoy me. Oto shinobi piss me off, I blow them up then proceed to blow up everything near by, how is any of that silent?" He sighed out.

"I miss Kiba, dog-breath is probably still getting his ass kicked by Ino in drinking games… waterfall was always a fun game for that. At least when he was drunk he could explain shit like this instead of just letting everybody stew." He reminisced with a grin. "Poor bastard wont be living down challenging Neji to a game anytime soon, I swear if Gaara hadn't walked in there when he did I think Neji would have killed him in the morning when he woke up with a killer hangover and a condom in his ass!" He continued with a barking laugh.

Slowly he reached up, grasping hold of the necklace on one of the silver cases. "So you free loading assholes, where should we go from here, I'm in another world, I don't have Akatsuki chasing me, I don't have any old friends out to kill me, no nothing. So what do I do?" He asked in a whisper before a snort of laughter. "Sakura-chan's probably yelling at me right now calling me an idiot, Tsunade you old bat, your probably cracking your knuckles about to deck me, Kakashi-sensei is already in the middle of another 'look underneath the underneath' speech, and of course the pervert has already ditched to the hot springs for his research, I shouldn't have expected anything else."

"You always had good advice, didn't you Iruka-sensei? I could definitely use some of it now if your listening right now, I promise not to use my Oiroke no jutsu on you for awhile if you help me out with this." He asked while looking directly at the case now before letting out a deep sigh and letting it drop down back around his neck. "Guess not eh."

"Your all probably mad at me for not leaving you anything for the past few years, must be boring up there with nothing to do, don't understand how you could do it. I promise I'll make up for lost time old friends as soon as I can, until then wait for me." He said softly while standing up and turning to face the pillar.

With one mighty leap he was half way up the pillar, without stopping he ran up the rest of the way before reaching the top. "Ya Ya, I'll bring you sake you damn old drunks."

"Oi don't you insult my tastes Ero-sennin, it's not my fault I can't get drunk, besides why would I want to drink when I could have the food of the gods at my fingertips." He cried out in irritation while quickly moving along the walkways following the fresh air.

A large mechanical spider dropped from the ceiling right in front of him as he walked along. Nonchalantly he bashed it out of the air before it landed on him. "I am not a freak! Non believer, thou shall be smitten on the day of judgment by the all mighty gods in heaven!" he yelled in a priestly voice before it cracked.

". . . . Not a word Sai."

"Kankuro I'm going to shove that puppet set of yours so far up your ass you're going to be shitting splinters for weeks if you finish that sentence." He growled out while passing by a pair of gnomes he could only guess were part of the council forces, effectively scarring the living hell out of them.

They quickly started running the other direction.

"Damn it Gaara stop laughing or I'll start sending you picks of what happens when you leave your sister and Shikamaru alone for too long! And don't you go all deadpan on me you asshole, your laughing your ass off on the inside and I know it! Damn you Gaara you bastard, laughing on the outside isn't any better!" He snapped in exasperation.

Letting out a heavy sigh as he reached yet another wide open gold and steel blue-grey room with two levels he continued right on past ignoring the strange looks he was getting. Down on the second floor was what could only be described as an army of midgets.

"No Sakura-chan they are not my relatives." He said once again with a groan.

At the far end of the room a wall section seemed to open up, emerging from the darkness within it is none other then Gelbin dragging a screaming Sicco. He could physically see the collective flinch from the army at the sound of those inhuman screams.

"_Almost makes me want to…wait didn't he already kill him ah well bastards really hurting my ears." _He thought to himself while once again activating his _Fumeizatsuki _and flattening his body against the wall. _"Really wish I knew how to do Ero-sennin's __Gamadaira Kage Ayasuri no Jutsu _(Toad Flat: Shadow manipulation technique), it would make this way easier."

The screaming dropped down out of ear level for him as he saw a rag being shoved inside his former master's mouth by Gelbin's hand.

He leaned forwards a small amount as he prepared for the speech to come.

"AM HAIRDREN, GA BUR LOCK!" Gelbin bellowed out to the crowd in gnomish.

Naruto promptly face vaulted at the pure unintelligible gibberish that was just said. "_WHAT THE HELL!?" _

And it only just started, he had a damn speech all rolled up.

"Screw this." He scoffed while basically flicking stealth the bird and walking away from the assembled crowd. "At least his people seem happy, perhaps this world won't be that bad if you're anything to go by true king."

"**Midgets aren't friends, they're food." **The fox grumbled causing Naruto to laugh

"_Everyone is a midget to you fox, some are just more so then others. And besides it's not like they have much meat on them for you to eat anyway."_

"**Not the point, it's the principle of you forcing me to walk away from a meal, even if their small, in that number they could make a half decent appetizer before I would have gone to eat a village or capital city in the past."**

He was surprised how easy it actually was for him to leave the city, his prison for the past few years. Hallways were littered with the bodies of either unconscious leper gnomes or troggs as he made his way to the golden lift.

"_If you say even one word about that I swear…"_

"**What about how you actually freaked out when you first got on it?**

"_Kyuubi..."._

"**No of course I would never point out how you screamed like a little girl."**

"_I swear to kami…"_

"**How could you even think I would do something like that?" **

"…_.. I hope you die a horrible painful death."_

"**That means you die as well."**

"_I'm a seal master, I'll find a way to make sure you die and I don't."_

"**I can make you impotent."**

"_No way!?"_

"**Do you really want to find out?"**

"…"

"**Exactly, now go play nice with the new world brat, try not to break it."**

"_How the hell do you break a world in the first place?"_

"**It's actually surprisingly easy, all it takes is a quick pulse reversion at a crossing point for the world's ley lines. This in turn sets off a chain reaction spiraling across every branching line until the pulse collides with itself causing a nuclear fission like reaction using the planet itself as the fuel. Approximately two and a half hours later voila you have a planet that literally just ripped itself apart."** The fox explained almost as if it was discussing the weather.

"………"

"**You barely understood a word I just said didn't you?"**

"_Ya you lost me at pulse reversion."_

"**Good."**

"_Ya sure, wait… did you just insult me?"_

"**Of course not."**

"… _Fuck you fox."_

"**Not now I'm tired."**

"_That's it, I definitely preferred you when you acted like a lazy bloodthirsty killing machine."_

"**Still lazy,**** still bloodthirsty, still a killing machine, and tired now, going to sleep. Don't be stupid… or at least try to keep your stupidity in check."**

"_You probably already know this by now but I hate you."_

A snore was the only reply.

"The air smells fresh now, no more iron or sulfur clouding it." He breathed out seemingly in rapture. Really gives you an appreciation for the world when you get to feel it in its glory."

Rounding the last corner he came to a steep ramp leading up and out towards the exit. He couldn't help the childish grin that spread across his face as he ran up the slope towards the outside. Skidding to a stop at the top, he stared out onto the free world he was about to set his first free steps upon.

He was looking at a frozen tundra of ice and snow. Machinery was scattered across the ground emitting gaseous fumes from the city below. A cobbled path lay winding past down towards the mountains in front of him, from where he stood at the entrance of Gnomeregan he could make out smoke from both the south and the east, even further east he could make out a large entranceway into the mountains.

Standing at the entranceway to his own hell he takes one last look back, ignoring the last vestiges of heat leaving his body before trudging out into the frozen wastes. High in the sky on the cloudless night the full moon watched. A single yellow eye followed his path from the shadows of the mountains above. A raven in the trees continued to watch through unnatural red eyes that sparked with unseen intelligence. And lastly high in the sky a creature as black as the night to blend into the sky with pale blue light radiating from the cracks flapped its wings on soundless winds watched through contemplative eyes.

Quickly vanishing in a swirl of wind and snow Naruto disappeared from view moving towards the south towards the source of the smoke. Ignoring the stares of the four unknown as he went into the forest upon this cloudless night.

"_Well, it seems like someone knows I'm here."_ He thought with a chuckle.

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Yes I know this chapter was a lot shorter then the first, don't flame me for that, the first chapter will be the regular length for the story from now on. Now on to the real reason for this note, clarification of what is going to happen.

I have read a few other Naruto and world of Warcraft crosses, lets leave it I am still annoyed with them. First of all these are mostly written by people who do not know Warcraft lore, that is something I cant really blame them for, they go by WoW, which is not a baseline for lore, in fact it bends it from time to time. As people should obviously be able to tell by now this story will be heavily based in actual warcraft lore, characters from the books will make an appearance, powers will actually work as the lore stays, theories are all lore based, in other words I will be doing a lot of rereading. That being said it should be explained that events in this story will tweak the history of the game and its lore, for those who have picked up the references I have made so far, you have only scratched the surface. This will be a story to move along the paths following the eternals, demons, dragons, and the relics of the past and the stories of the future.

Review if you have the time as I would appreciate it, toss in a question for me if you want as well and I'll get back to you.

Also looking for a beta that is knowledgeable of warcraft lore to work things out with as it would cut down my update time.

Stephen Fournier


	3. Exodus

Last chapter

He was looking at a frozen tundra of ice and snow. Machinery was scattered across the ground emitting gaseous fumes from the city below. A cobbled path lay winding past down towards the mountains in front of him, from where he stood at the entrance of Gnomeregan he could make out smoke from both the south and the east, even further east he could make out a large entranceway into the mountains.

Standing at the entranceway to his own hell he takes one last look back, ignoring the last vestiges of heat leaving his body before trudging out into the frozen wastes. High in the sky on the cloudless night the full moon watched. A single yellow eye followed his path from the shadows of the mountains above. A raven in the trees continued to watch through unnatural red eyes that sparked with unseen intelligence. And lastly high in the sky a creature as black as the night to blend into the sky with pale blue light radiating from the cracks flapped its wings on soundless winds watched through contemplative eyes.

Quickly vanishing in a swirl of wind and snow Naruto disappeared from view moving towards the south towards the source of the smoke. Ignoring the stares of the four unknown as he went into the forest upon this cloudless night.

"_Well, it seems like someone knows I'm here."_ He thought with a chuckle.

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Opening his pure ocean blue eyes slowly to adjust to the low light after his short sleep he groaned softly as he took in the setting sun. "Looks like its that time again." He groaned while getting up from his resting place along the cavern wall.

The moment he awoke the trolls standing near him scattered down the other two paths and out of his way. He glared at the one that tried to make off with his nice coat though, if he had a kunai for every time one of them tried that he would have enough to make Ten Ten wet at the knees. Quickly tossing on his white double sided Wendigo fur coat and raping it tightly around himself, obscuring his short blond locks and whisker marks in the white fur before walking calmly through the tunnels. Grabbing his broadsword on the way out, and slinging it over his shoulder with a graceful twist before digging into one of the several pockets along his coats inner lining. Pulling out a small brown leather bound notebook with the name _Grelin Whitebeard_ on the inside. Flipping it open with one hand and thumbing to the last set of entries he began to read while walking.

"Don't know how much more time I have before they send in the mountaineers to deal with this place. Probably should start moving soon and eliminate any traces of my staying here… I wonder if I could burn the last of that bloody hair without anyone outside noticing, no probably not, the smell would be different then usual and with those two still out on the lake I don't dare." He said to himself with a sigh before a chuckle rose from his throat while reading one entry in particular from a few days before he stole it from Grik'nir.

"Snow below so white,"

"Sky above so blue,"

"Wolves howl at night,"

"And not a drop of brew." He finished with a laugh as he exited the caverns and came out to the snowy wastes of _Dun Morogh. _A snowstorm was blowing through so he would not be missed or noticed as he traveled abroad."Reminds me of a drunk lee singing karaoke." He said with a grin as a loud bark echoed above him.

Arching his brow he turned and gave a questioning look to the one yellow gleaming eye that seemed to hover above the hold in the storm. "Coming?" He asked with amusement clear in his voice.

A flash of an animalistic grin could be seen for a moment as the winds changed direction yet again. It disappeared just as quickly and with a small sound lost upon the howling winds the eye moved to be almost right in front of him. Now in the small shelter of _Frostmane Holds _maw could the one eyed creature be seen. It was a dire wolf, white as the snow that circled on the winds. It was close to eight feet in length and stood almost five feet in height, weighing in if he had to guess somewhere around five hundred to six hundred pounds. The only oddity about it was the small black eye patch which he still didn't even know how it could possibly have been put on or how it found it in the first place, a small series of scars ran outwards from its sides around its left eye. It cut an impressive figure in the snowy wastes moving almost like a ghost across white plains leaving barely a trace.

The frost wolf yawned at him seemingly bored and walked right past him. He could only shake his head at the beast's antics before trudging along after it. "You're an ass you know that?" He said in amusement, getting a snicker from the massive white wolf. It would be an eternal mystery for just how intelligent the wolf was, it understood at points with shocking clarity, at others it seemed to be as thick as a brick wall (or just ignored him entirely he was never quite sure). He was not what Naruto would call an ally; they were more a passing acquaintance at the least with minor bond of trust between them. Naruto needed him for the sake of his mind while the wolf simply got a sadistic pleasure from being around him. One day they would part paths and that would be the end of it for them; however until then there was no point to letting some stray creature or a mountaineer knock the other off in a moment of weakness

"To the _Grizzled Den _it is then." He finished with a slightly feral grin that was matched by his partner.

Several weeks had passed since his escape from the mountain city of technology, Gnomeregan. After finding his way south, he quickly discovered the source of the smoke in the form of a cave of ice trolls. It had taken a week or so for them to get the hint once he had made his way inside their caves to definitely not screw with him. Quickly sectioning off a small area in the cave for himself and creating a small storehouse and fire pit he had been able to find a relatively safe place to sleep. A small pact managed to be created if an unspoken one, he kills any other intruders who get into the caves, getting first pick on any food they had on them as well as clothing that could fit him, after that he was to be left alone and the trolls could do what they usually do with the remains.

Eat them.

However he had quickly learned never to trust a dwarves water skin or canteen, you never know what is inside them most of the time. The first time he ever had alcohol that was not the sake of his world was… intriguing and annoying at the same time. Intriguing for the first time in his life he managed to get himself drunk. It seemed he needed the several times stronger stuff as the fox's chakra usually purges all foreign substances as soon as they enter his body, annoying because he woke up with a headache to rival a meeting with Gai and Lee, then add a troll gnawing on his leg.

Safe to say the damn thing did not live long.

The only thing that saved the rest of the tribe in what he later found was called _Frostmane hold _was the fact that the dwarves had been probing the hold since before he arrived. He was not stupid; he knew if suddenly an entire tribe of trolls ended up dead people would question what happened, for now it was better to keep a low profile. That did not stop him from putting the one the dwarves called _Grik'nir the Cold _in his place whenever the incompetent leader of the hold decided to irritate him. It did was quite amusing to be able to tear off a person's arms nine times in a week.

Gaara would have loved to meet him.

He however had not been idle in the time since his freedom. It had not taken him that long to realize just how far he had fallen since his coming to this world, finding the problems and where they sprung up was easy, fixing them was another matter. The level of control he had so tenaciously fought for in the years of being a shinobi had all but dissipated form his negligence. Second of all was when he realized the differences in physiology between the races of this world, trolls being able to heal just about any human fatal wound was the perfect example. If he came up against another race of this world aside from human-like ones, he would be rather limited when it came to his silent instant killings, it would not do for his reputation to stab one of them in the heart, and find out they have two. Second problem was dealing with the inhuman powers like that elemental, if it was not for the fox he would have started to melt if that carried on any longer, only solution to that was something he hated with almost as much a passion as paperwork.

Sitting still and studying to be a good anatomy student. Only problem is this time he did not have Hinata for incentive.

Lastly and the most irritating of all his defects now a days was his stamina, speed, and stealth levels. The fact that he could not settle into the hold without alerting someone to his presence was about as big an insult to his pride as could be. For crying out loud, he used to be able to eliminate _Kiri _assassination squads without them even blinking, as he stood right behind them. The rest of his bodies condition could be blamed entirely on Sicco, little bastard keeping him stung up so he couldn't move for as long as he did was bound to have some negative side effects. Add the complete malnutrition for four years and you have one atrophied body that within all reason should be dead.

Senjutsu was one thing he was not even going to bother with until he gets up to at least a respectable level. He really did not want to turn into a toad and without having Fukasaku's old staff that could be one very real possibility if he were not careful.

Only possible positives he could see in his coming here were increased chakra reserves because of the fox's chakra still mixing in with his and the nigh insane pain tolerance he now had.

Going through a war, you learn to count your small blessings.

The trek was as always when they did this relatively quick. On most occasions when the pair make their short trip to the den both of their competitive natures would flare to the surface, Naruto because it was this nature that pushed him to be as strong as he was and simple pride on the wolf's part. It was normally a close race. Naruto was generally the faster of the two by a good deal however when it came to speed through the dense snowdrifts of Dun Morogh the wolf was the obvious better. It was yet another thing about the wolf that Naruto simply checked off as different to this world, he had seen it before when the creature fought, how it used its breath to literally freeze its enemies to death, forming ice inside a dwarf's neck and then frosting the inside causing death by asphyxiation. The way the wolf ran without having its weight sink its body below the snow only made him wonder if perhaps the ice powers it had were not subject only to breathe, it would make sense if it were freezing the snow in front of it or directly underneath its paws to ice instead of the soft snow. Theories aside it was only a few minutes later that they arrived at their destination.

He normally chose this time to come out and hunt for food and information after discovering a glaring complication with his new set of eyes. The damn things took in light far better then his old ones giving him a sort of night vision that he could quite easily use to the best of his known abilities at stealth, the problem was he could not control it. The first day he decided to come out of the hold on a relatively clear day with the sun high in the sky and the snow nice and fresh after his incarceration ended thinking it would be nice to relax today. He did not consider being nearly blinded a good way to relax, add to that he once again was killing trolls due to their own stupidity left him rather pissed off. Thus, he discovered his little problem with the daytime here; his eyes were sensitive enough to the light that the direct glare form the sun or even the bright light reflected off the snow-covered ground nearly could blind him.

Therefore, he figured that becoming nocturnal would not be that hard until he figured out a way around the problem. It's not as if he intended to sleep that much anyway, or if he even could. The idea of being stabbed or eaten is usually enough to keep the average person awake, having your own personal demons in your sleep just makes it a

With his partner at his side, both crouched down and blending into the snow they watched the cave directly in front of them for activity. Tracks both old and new could be seen littering the frozen forest floor, some small enough to be a gnome or a dwarf who was looking to make a reputation in the town up ahead, several others could be from the various animals that inhabited the den like the snow leopards and crag boars. However the prey they hunted were the larger set of tracks, the Wendigo. The vaguely ape like beasts of white fur and horns that stood almost seven to eight feet in height with a barrel chest, arms as thick as a tree trunk and hands that could reach around a human head and crush it like an infants. Thankfully the beasts were reasonably stupid and slow, they lacked a pack mentality that the other beasts had which let them be alone while the others were not.

In other words it made them easy prey. Oddly enough the meat underneath all that fur was actually quite tender and juicy from what he had found, he guessed it had something to do with all the fights they had.

"Speaking of easy prey here comes the first one now." He whispered with a slight grin, watching as the behemoth growled back towards another of its kind still in the cave.

It always was quite entertaining to watch their interactions. The Wendigos really don't give much of a damn for the rest of their species, if one of them gets in a fight they do not help out. If one of them steps into the others territory, well they are just as likely to kill each other as he was they. They are anti-social creatures when it came down to it, the group living right now was already grating on their nerves causing deaths between them often. However he had run in to the occasional oddity in the form of one with a few friends, bugger had nearly taken his head off one time when he had dismissed the threat of one. If it wasn't for the wolf he would have at least been clipped by that clawed hand but thankfully he hadn't.

The pair waited as soon as the first one had almost disappeared from their view. Their was no point in springing a trap early for only one little rabbit when you could have a litter with a little more patience. For almost five minutes, the pair waited, doing a semi-circle perimeter around the entrance to the den. In that time another four had sluggishly left the cave, occasionally taking swipes at each other on the way out. Keeping track of the five in the blinding blizzard proved a small challenge however. Guessing that the extra four would be enough to last them for a while and give them some entertainment he let loose a sharp whistle that pierced through the howling wind. A deep howl cut through immediately after words followed by a bellowing cry of pain.

"_Overzealous little bastard." _Naruto thought with a grin as he leaped into the fray.

Quickly spotting the closest of the Wendigo to his position he dropped his broadsword off his shoulders, keeping the blade tip low to the ground. Without alerting his presence in the least to the unsuspecting beast he appeared behind it already in mid spin as he made his pass. The whistle of the blade as it sliced through the air was heard only by Naruto over the howl of the wind. Before the Wendigo even knew what hit it, in one clean stroke cleaved its left leg from its body. Allowing his momentum to carry his blade and his body he continued his spin along the snow, watching in passing as the beast began to topple backwards. Quickly reversing the hilt in his palm he dropped to one knee following the Wendigo's decent. The blade pierced through the beasts chest at the same moment it his the ground, pinning it to the frozen earth. It didn't even have the chance to cry out with the speed it was defeated. With a quick twist of his wrist the beast's heart finally stopped. As the snow turned red from he removed the blade from the dead, wiping the blood clean from the blade.

"_Damn things can smell blood at least, don't want them to know where I am now do I. Can't blame them actually, their blood reeks like hell!" _He thought with a cringe as he caught one last vestige of the blood on his blade.

Rolling his eyes almost absent mindedly, he quickly flipped the handle back into a reverse grip, laying the flat of the large blade across his forearm. Without even a glance, he elbowed up high using the blade. A small smirk made its way across his face as the cry of alarm came from behind him and he felt the meeting of blade and flesh. Using the reflection of the polished steel blade at his side he caught a glimpse of the widened eyes of the second Wendigo as his blade caught its shoulder.

"Tsk, I missed." He said in annoyance.

His arms tensed for only a second as he managed to wrench his blade upwards through the beast's shoulder and into the air. With a bloodthirsty growl it lashed out with its still free arm just missing the blonde-haired man's head by an inch as he ducked. As soon as the arm passed over top he was in motion, spinning on his heels he grabbed hold of the swinging arm as it tried to make a return. Placing one hand at the elbow and another at the shoulder he allowed the beast to roar and attempt to backhand him. Just before the clawed hand was about to smash his skull he dropped all his weight onto the animal's shoulder and pulled back on its elbow. The effect was immediate as it smashed down head first to the snow. The still bleeding wound darkened its fur and the white ground as it tried to get up, groaning in pain.

Looking up slightly and following the flash of metal in the sky Naruto sighed.

"Three."

"Two."

"One." On the final count his sky born blade fell down to earth, cutting straight through the Wendigo's skull before planting itself into the snow. Dropping the dead arm with a heavy thump he pulled his sword out of the surprised beasts head with a sickening sucking noise. Blood, bone fragments, and brain matter all squelched out of the wound and ran upwards along the blade edge where it stabbed. Sighing to himself and scrunching his face up in disgust, he closed his eyes in concentration. What was once a blank wall of white snow that blew along the wind became clear as a powerful pulse shot outwards from his body in the span of a second. He could see the white wolf was sinking its fangs into the back of the fourth Wendigo's leg. He watched as a sharp yank tore the hamstring of the Wendigo out through the muscle and into the night air, turning only as the howling beast fell to its knees, unable to support its weight. However before he could find the fifth one, the wall of wind returned in full force, swirling about in between frozen tree limbs and the warm bodies of the living.

""Damn, really wished I had asked about the tracker skill the _Yuki-nin _used, would make finding the monstrous white bastard a lot easier." Calming himself quickly his mind analyzed all possible places the last one could have gone. "Can't get a whiff of him because of this wind and all the blood in the air, same for heartbeat tracking, tracks are covered up too quickly too get a fresh look. I am pretty much sitting in a hot bed of generalized killing intent so no following to the source there. Underground isn't an option for these guys, neither is the air. I could see up till about the den entrance so it is not near by… this only leaves…," His thoughts were interrupted by the massive disturbance in the air behind him, turning his head slightly he caught site of a boulder flying towards him. Leaping with the agility and natural grace of a predator he soared just above the boulder that landed just where he was standing a moment ago.

Landing nimbly atop the rock, he traced its trajectory back to its source, a scowling Wendigo who was barely discernable amongst the blowing snow. For practically a minute he stood there atop the boulder while more continued to be lobbed at him. Coincidentally none came close to hitting him.

Simply staring at the Wendigo in exasperation. Palming his head in his hand _before_ groaning. _"I have fought double S-class shinobi, I have a bounty almost as big as the Yondaime had in Iwa, Kiri fears me and hates me for stealing their techniques, and Akatsuki labeled me a threat to the world itself. This is simply insulting." _He thought to himself with loathing.

"Lets get this shit over with." He ground out in revulsion. Taking a short step off the boulders edge, he landed into the soft snow, kicking it up along the wind. When the snow relatively settled he was nowhere to be seen. Having lost its target the beast looked around in confusion, roaring loudly in hopes of finding its attacker.

The roars were cut abruptly short by the clawed hand that shot out from seemingly nothing, flashing out and grasping the beast by its stubby throat. Appearing right in front of the beast, he slowly lifted it off the ground with the clawed hand, his other keeping a tight grip on his sword hilt. Bright glowing blue eyes peered into the giant animals dull black, he could see the fear dancing in them as the lack of oxygen started to set in. It tried clawing away at the offending arm holding its neck like a vice only for them to be batted away with the sharp edge of a blade each time. Eventually its struggles stopped, its eyes showing submission and defeat, a small rasping noise rose from its throat saying something that no words would express. For a single instant, his body acted on an unknown instinct at the look. With a slight twist of his wrist, the Wendigo's windpipe snapped and its neck broke. Muscle that once held it standing fell limp, lifelessly to the ground.

Turning slowly on the balls of his feet Naruto walked at a sedate pace towards where he could make out his companions form. His thoughts in turmoil as he looked towards the blood spattered fur of the fallen Wendigo and his partner. Looking up from its laid out position on the ground to its human ally the wolf remained silent, respecting the human's peace as he sorted himself out.

Quickly dipping his hands into the snow to cleanse his hands of the blood he looked around with a sigh. He himself didn't understand his actions there, a part of him wanted nothing more then to slaughter the beast as he would any other. It had scorned him without even knowing it so why should he do any less. On the other hand, he had seen the look in its eyes. It was the same eyes he had seen in animals like deer that had just been caught by a wolf. One of resignation. When he had seen those eyes all the anger left him, replaced by some sort of compassion for the beast. He didn't understand it at the moment what made him do that and worse yet he could feel the fox stirring at his musings.

He began now to complete what he came to the cave for. Sitting down with a small yet sharp knife, he began skinning the beasts one by one, eventually settling the pelts into a neat pile. After words, he began scrapping the undamaged meat off the animal's bodies, finally establishing a pile large enough to last for several days. Without further wait, he drew from one of his pockets a small and crudely made scroll made out of animal hide. Unfurling it with a quick flourish along the snow, revealing the runes, and sealing script inscribed in blood onto their forms. Within less then a minute both piles had been sealed into the scroll and pocketed, all the while he continued his musings.

Now the more that he thought about it, his bloodlust almost seemed unnatural for him. He had been efficient in the past not bloodthirsty, perhaps easy to anger but even then…

The sharp sound of a branch breaking even over the wind in the valley pierced through the night air. Acting entirely on instinct his sword arm flashed outwards toward the sound as his companion leapt to his feet. The loud clang of steel meeting steel rang through the wilderness as his blade was stopped. The wind and snow cleared just enough for him to make out a dwarf wielding a two handed axe and in leather armor holding his sword at bay. A rumbling chuckle came from the dwarf as he pulled back his axe.

"Don't let your guard down in the least do ya lad?" The dwarf asked whole-heartedly with a heavy dwarvish accent.

Raising a brow at the joking tone Naruto replied in amusement while returning his blade closer to him, yet still keeping it at the ready. "What can I say, every time I do somebody tries to kill me, its all very rude."

Laughing at the joke the dwarf strapped his axe to his back before offering an out stretched hand. "_Grif Wildheart_, resident hunter trainer fer the new blood that keeps comin through these lands."

Clasping the hand in a firm grip Naruto replied while planting his own blade firmly into the ground. "Uzumaki Naruto, just a passerby along with my canine compatriot." He said with a quick glance to his now departed partner.

Catching the surprised look upon Naruto's face Grif bellowed a quick barking laugh. "Found yer self a free spirited one did ya."

Laughing sheepishly, he replied with a shrug. "Its more he found me, he comes and goes as he pleases."

"As it should be, no ones got the right to treat such a fine animal as that like a common house pet."

"Careful, the stuck up pain in my ass has already got himself an ego. He doesn't need anyone inflating it." Naruto said with a grin. "So should I ask what your doing down hear at this time of night Grif?" He asked still eyeing the stocky dwarf cautiously.

"Why waiting fer you lad." The dwarf said casually as Naruto tensed up visibly underneath his cloak. "I've been watching you fer awhile now Naruto."

Swallowing a lump that appeared in his throat before grasping his sword handle again. "I know." Indeed, he had been aware of the pair of eyes watching him for some time now. He had never sensed any malicious intent towards him so he hadn't ever acted on it, passing it off as no more then a wandering bear or leopard. Apparently, he had been wrong.

"Relax laddie, if I was going to give you over to the mountaineers I would have done so weeks ago. Aye, I know about yer dealings in the gnome city, they say you're not but a viscous killer, that we should steer clear of you at all times." Turning to the side, Grif spit out into the snow, as if the words were a bad taste in his mouth. "I wouldn't be a hunter worth my salt if I believed a word of that dragon dung without seeing you fer myself."

Without taking his hand off his sword, he reached up and pulled back the covers of his hood, exposing his blond shoulder length locks and bright glowing blue eyes to the dwarf. "And what did you see friend?" he questioned cautiously.

"Bah, what I see is a man who needs one hell of a drink and a warm bed!" He said with a laugh before turning to his side. Bringing his fingers up to mouth and blowing a sharp whistle. Turning back to Naruto Grif gave a feral grin. "Follow me; my partner will keep the way clear of the more tenacious wildlife as we make our way to the inn and a piping hot brew." He said while beginning to walk away back the way he came.

Blinking owlishly at the shear open kindness of this dwarf he literally just met he racked his brain for any reasons why he shouldn't go. _"Get out of this blasted cold, warm food, warm drink, possibly no one going to stab me in my sleep… or when I'm awake, and I can get some information without torturing someone."_ Safe to say it didn't take long before he was jogging off after the surprisingly quick dwarf.

"_Thinking back, I really shouldn't have expected any better." _Naruto thought to himself with a childish grin on his face. He and Grif had easily found their way without incident to the small town of Kharanos, waiting their at the town entrance was a large white bear that as soon as they came in view pounced on top of Grif. If it weren't for the fact that Grif was laughing as he tried to get his overly affectionate partner off of him Naruto would have thought he was under attack. After his amusing meeting with the female bear who Grif told him was named _Sally_ of all things they made their way to the inn after Grif had provided her with a generous helping of fish he had apparently caught earlier in the day. The last thing Grif said to him though before they entered the tavern was what saved him from a fight, Keep your head down." Doing exactly that he managed to avoid the glass tankard of ale that was thrown at his head moments after walking in the door.

Therefore, with a glee that only a drunk, a dwarf, or a demon container could comprehend Naruto started his first dwarven tavern experience.

The tavern was large; three different floors kept both the drinkers and the sleepers separate from each other. On the top floor where they entered in was stone railing that ran towards a stairway that led down to the next floor, across from them was a large circular table though full of drunk dwarves swinging back and forwards in their seats while singing in a horrible off key tone. Down on the second floor were a group of four or five tables full of far more rowdy dwarves. This group was constantly getting in fights with anyone and everyone close to them while still laughing their drunken heads off. All the while a trio of dwarven serving girls were making their way around completely unharmed passing about more and more ale to whoever asked. Farther to the back he could see the bar with an aging dwarf cleaning a glass and laughing with one of the patrons. Further along the back wall was a large and inviting fireplace with a pair of comfy looking chairs in front of them, two gnomes passed out in them, mugs still clutched in hand. Another room beside the bar was open and even though he couldn't see inside it, his nose told him it was the kitchen and something fierce was being cooked up. Lastly was the set of stairs that led down to what he guessed were the sleeping quarters. In this drunken tavern, he had found the first thing in this world that reminded him of his own.

Leaning over to where Grif was standing against the railing he said as calmly as he could in this situation. "Grif… I think I'm in heaven."

"Don't say that yet lad, we have a long way to go and a few barrels of Thunderbrew's finest to drink before we get there." Grif replied with a grin.

"As long as I don't wake up with a troll gnawing on my leg when I wake up I'll be happy." He said with a laugh before leaping over the railing and diving into the crowd. Once down a level it had taken a few minutes and a kidney shot along the way to make it to the bar where it was reasonably less violent. Taking a seat at the bar he noticed Grif already inside the crowd heading towards him.

"It always this busy here?" He yelled to the dwarf across the bar.

Letting loose a laugh the dwarf replied before taking a quick stock of Naruto, he was doing likewise taking the in the dwarfs faded grey beard and growing wrinkles on his skin. Impressively enough he carried his age well not letting it slow him down in the least. That was something he could respect. "Not always, tis been like this all month, it'll settle down eventually and they'll all owe me enough to line me pockets fer years."

"Profitable, yet somewhat cruel, sounds like a good business strategy to me!" he replied with a laugh.

Ah so what can I get ye laddie?!" The dwarf yelled over the noise of the pup.

Taking a look back at the crowd, he grinned and answered just as loud. "What are they all having?" Before being forced to duck underneath the flying dwarf that had just been thrown across the room.

"Adventurous elf are ya, bin a mighty few years since I seen one of your kind, any chance you be Vereesa's kid last I heard from my old friend she married her human wizard friend?" The keeper asked through curious eyes, noticing the confused look on his patron's face he relented. "Bah, never you mind this old man, one tall Thunder ale comin up free of charge for remindin me of an old friend." He said before turning around to his taps leaving a rather curious Naruto.

"You know you're the second person to point that out friend, I'm guessing my kind aren't all that common around here." He asked without missing a beat.

"Not nearly as common as ye used ter be, blasted blood elves, traitors the lot of them sold their souls to demons with the loss of their city. With that came a prejudice on both sides that cut off any inter-racial breeding. Geez lad, you'd had ta be under a rock for the past couple O' years or something to miss all this stuff, we had a bloody war an all with even the dead rising agains the livin!?" he called back boisterously yet with a solemn undertone.

"_The dead rising." _The very thought sent a shiver up his spine, the idea of possibly having to fight a corpse, or worse even one of his old friends disgusted him on a level only a veteran of wars could understand. _"I have honestly never been happier then I am now about our rituals to send the dead off with the flame. Would I be able to fight Iruka, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, or god forbid Hinata, would I be able to put them back to rest again and again only for them to rise back." _Shaking himself from his morbid thoughts as his ale was placed in front of him by the innkeeper, one in his hands as well.

"Best not to think about it lad." The dwarf said with remorse in his voice catching the turn his thoughts had taken. "Belm Thunderbrew be ma name, and I'll be dark iron's arse before I let one O' my customers stand in here without a grin and a flagon of ale in hand. YA HEAR ME BOYS, ANOTHER ROUND TO EVERY DWARF, GNOME, ELF, AND HUMAN STILL STANDING, AND ANOTHER TWO FOR THOSE TRIPPIN OVER!" The newly named Belm bellowed out to the crowd, getting a drunken cry of joy from all still conscious.

"Even to the ones tripping and falling?" he asked through raised brows.

"Especially the ones falling over." Belm replied with a grin getting Naruto to catch on to the dwarf's scheme.

"Half of them will be to hung over in the morning to remember which were free and which weren't will they?" Naruto asked slyly with a slight grin spreading.

"Yep."

"Profitable yet cruel." They said at the same time, toasting to their own joke, tossing back a quarter of his tankard in one go as Belm did before slamming back down to the table. It felt as if he had just swallowed boiling water with how the alcohol burned his throat on the way down, it wasn't as bad as the flask of fire whisky he had downed a few weeks back, but it was still strong. Having to resist the urge to cough it up was a testament to it. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it the demonic chakra in his body had already started burning through it before it had reached his stomach. With a grin he realized he might just survive Belm's little game with his wallet of stolen silver intact.

"Now before I forget and you end up just like them I'll be needing to take your sword their…" Belm said, gesturing to the broadsword on his back.

He wasn't at all surprised to hear this, looking behind the bar he saw pretty much a stockpile of every type and shape of weapon he could imagine, and even some he couldn't. Mind you with how this group was looking and how Belm judged business he couldn't blame him. The idea of a room this packed full of fighters, all with their weapons and drunk off their asses could prove bad for business, especially after how much they've already managed to drink. Besides if worse came to worse, he didn't need a sword to level the place without anyone finding out till morning, and of course by then he would be long gone to some place hopefully warmer.

"Don't see a problem with that, even if you do already have enough back their to open a shop or an armory at this rate." He said with a grin while removing the blade from its spot on his back, held to that spot a moment before hand by seemingly nothing. Belm saw this with a curious expression as Naruto handed the plain steel blade over to him.

"No, no, trade secret so don't even ask." He said cutting off Belm from even asking, causing the aged dwarf to scowl. _"Wouldn't be that big of a secret in a shinobi village of course, especially when every genin with a little ingenuity could do the exact same thing with a little chakra control."_ He thought to himself with a smirk.

"Bah keep your secrets from this old man if you wish boy, my knowledge is all that's keeping me walking alongside you young ones." Belm said in a slightly tired voice before sighing however a mischievous twinkle resided in his eyes as he lowered his head.

A soft chuckle was the only response the dwarf got from Naruto. "Nice try old man, you may be good enough to fool the drunks and the regulars here but your going to have to try harder for me." Just as quickly as it came the sad look was gone from his face and back to a scowl. "Don't worry too much about it, its your eyes that give you away, too confident and people can see it." Ignoring the annoyed look on Belm's face he brought his tankard up to his mouth and took a slower go at the fiery liquid.

It seemed he chose a good time to do that as well, a moment later two dwarves came over to the bar table carrying a third by the arms. All three had bruises and cuts on them, obviously from the fights still going on behind him. Without much worry of the two talking at the bar they placed the third one on top of the bar and ran alongside it, eventually going past Naruto and smashing the third into a stone pillar.

Raising a brow at the scene Naruto turned his back on Belm for a moment to try and spot Grif.

"Lookin for someone lad?" Belm asked while pushing the now unconscious and most likely brain damaged dwarf off his bar and down to the floor with little care.

"Names Naruto actually, sounds better then being called boy or lad all the time." Naruto replied sarcastically.

"Interesting name there, Naruto, not your typical human name nor does it appear like that of an elf's, sort of like yourself."

"What can I say I'm a one of a kind person. Either way I'm looking for a dwarf named Grif Wildheart, I came in with him, but we got separated, you know him." When he turned back towards Belm, he noted with a curious gaze the aged dwarf palming his face in his hands and mumbling to himself. "If I walk in there one more time and find him with my dear…"

"_Judging between Belm's and Grif's age… and since Belm has quite the large family it wouldn't be a big surprise if he had a daughter……this is one situation where I should indefinitely play the idiot in hopes no one notices me." _This thought was gone rather quickly as he saw Belm coming forward from the taps with at least three tankards in each hand. _"On second thought… feign ignorance and just attempt to get completely smashed in record time with a bunch of dwarves."_

"**A sound plan if I ever heard one, just a warning that I'll be laughing at you in the morning."**

Having already finished his first tankard, he reached forward, grabbing a second one and downing it in a single go. _"Sounds good to me." _He thought with a grin before raising his free hand in the air. In his open palm landed the head of young, heavily inebriated gnome. Keeping hold of the gnome's head, he stood up as it flailed about, turned around, and addressed the room. "OK who threw the gnome?"

A full tankard of ale aimed for his head was the answer from the throng. Using the gnome as a shield, he managed to stop the mugs momentum and cause it to freefall into his hand, all without spilling a drop on himself. A vein quickly began to throb on his forehead as he glared at the crowd, easily keeping track of the ass who threw the mug. _"Ignore me will ya." _Once again quickly downing another drink, he hurls the now unconscious gnome right at the dwarf who threw the cup. Before the gnome had even landed, with one foot he flipped up the bar stool he had been previously using into the air before kicking it straight at the very same dwarf.

Both hit at the exact same time, causing the dwarf to black out and knock several others over, causing general chaos once again. Smiling at the ensuing chaos both he and his resident demon thought only one thing. _**"Its going to be a fun night tonight."**_

Inside the mythical caverns of time, home to the bronze dragon flight and the entrance to time itself. A conversation continues between two of the avatars of the bronze, what they discuss in these hallowed halls are those disturbances that rack the world. Things that can only be seen through the eyes of golden sand.

"So I take it he has not been as troublesome as we first foresaw, Nozari" The larger of the two said, its voice decidedly male, yet coming from a distance, like an echo, there yet not entirely.

"No he hasn't, I don't understand it though, why has the master let this one of all others go unattended. We should have put a stop to this before it ever started." The second more feminine sounding dragon said. Her scales shimmering as they reflected the mystic light of their realm.

"Still keep watch over him, we know the master has interest in him for reasons only he knows. In addition, for him to have entered into the time stream as he did, it reeks of the twilight's influence. Any signs of them?"

"None directly, I managed to over hear rumors from about a month ago while in the area of a strange light being seen in the sky but nothing more. How this disturbance managed to evade our sight for as long as it did, that is disturbing news. I fear for the stability of time brother Andormu, we are swiftly losing control of things and if we don't correct them soon it may be too late, if only the Timeless one told us where or when he was going we may have been able to get his help. How are the girls you were sent to watch over, I assume you have been passing on what he asked of you." 

"Yes, its sad you know, we are the guardians of time, said to have patience infinite, yet I'm generally at my wits end every time I walk into that orphanage. Thankfully for my sanity I shouldn't have to pose as a priest again for another few months, I've been too neglectful when its come to my actual duties recently. The two of them are exactly as he said they would be, and their interests are just as wild. However its their potential that scares me."

"Scares you brother?" Nozari asked curiously.

"I may lack the time lords all seeing eyes but even I can see some of what they will become. One a wielder of spirits, the other of light, both will be powerful beyond any mortal before. If guided down the right path they could bring upon the world a peace it has not seen before, if not, I shudder at the thought. Either way my job currently is done as the master asked, they now want to see the caverns one day. Do you have any idea of the events that could be interrupted because of your charge, without the time lord here we are relatively on our own and must take precautions, mental state, as well as personality could all influence any outcomes."

"He is… erratic and unstable, his mind is focused at times yet wanders at others like he is conversing with something. He has a seemingly innate connection with the wild, his powers are something that I have never seen a mortal use before yet also seems relatively the same. He seems to be in mourning at the moment, he erected a small grave and marked it with a strange lettering that I could not decipher in the middle of a graveyard one day and spent the rest of it praying in silence from the looks of it. The only thing that seems to be precious to him now is his necklace and his life in that order, he displays relatively little problems with killing, yet at times seems to detest it. He is an odd one. As for actual damages, all I have to go in what the lord said, that the city of science was freed far too soon, what this could mean in the end is beyond my scope. The alliance will once again have their technological advantage over the horde; this could mean that the humans might try to draw the orcs into all out war again. At least I managed to have one of our agents destroy the information regarding _that _ project. If the gnomes succeeded in recreating it and the betrayer found out, either way it shall not happen. He is however an enemy of the legion, that I am sure of."

"That is at least a blessing for us, if they can be stalled then it could explain why the lord wanted us to leave him be."

"Brother I must ask, how much longer can we keep this up, you know as well as I do that sending mortals through the portals isn't doing anything. The portal exists to a specific point in time, no matter how many we send through they will go to the same time yet a different time, unless we can actually close their portal it means nothing."

"That is what I am searching for sister, perhaps it is time I pay the red sorcerer of the purple eye a visit."

"Griff… remind me never to drink with your friends again." Naruto groaned out, currently slung over his canine companions shoulder.

The pair was lazily walking up the relatively steep hill that led to Ironforge, the ancestral home of the dwarves. After six hours of straight dwarven drinking, games included, uncountable bar fights, and watching Griff being tossed out by Belm after sleeping with his daughter, he was beat.

After stumbling around for several minutes trying to walk straight, the white wolf decided to make its presence known to the drunken duo by knocking them over… repeatedly, eventually consenting to carry Naruto who couldn't walk.

"And where are my legs…? I need those for… ah what's it called when you… you know, it involves moving your…legs, back and forward. I can't do it now but what's it called?"

"Walkin' laddy, don't worry you'll be back on yer feet in no time." Griff responded before stumbling and almost falling over.

"No… just let me die here… please." Naruto managed to groan out before clutching his head. He never noticed the slight grin the wolf gave him before dropping him into a snow bank. Head first of course.

Griff wasn't exactly sure what happened there, one moment he turned his head away from his partner in drunken revelry who was safely atop the back of his partner. The next moment he turned back and found a pair of legs sticking up out of a snow bank, the wolf was also trying to bury them.

"Why is a blue yeti lookin' like it wants ter hug me sticking out of the snow?" the wolf turned at hearing this, if anyone reasonably sober was watching they would swear it almost broke its neck by cocking its head to the side, staring at the dwarf.

"Griff, why does my head hurt?" Naruto managed to whine out through the snow.

"Nooooooooooo, the beastie ate ya! I don' want t'you ter die, ye have me wallet! Don't worry laddy I'll save ya!" Griff yelled in horror before running forward while un-strapping his axe. The wolf could only roll its eyes as Griff made a slight error in his footing, tripping face first into the ground. His axe however went flying into the air, landing right in between the pair of legs sticking out of the snow bank.

A shriek of pure pain and horror shattered the peaceful environment of Dun Morogh that night, bears, cats, and boars alike all cringed in fright and pity.

Birds for miles around scattered away from their perches and nests to escape the poor soul's pain.

The men of the Ironforge and Kharanos all covered their crotches and ushered a prayer for the wounded man.

Even the very trolls of _Frostmane hold _heard that cry, knowing who it was even from that distance, began huddling together in fear for their lives.

All this originated from a single screaming head sticking out of a snow bank as the blunt side of an axe slammed into his family jewels.

"**THAT has got to hurt!" **

"Griff… remind me never to drink with your friends again." Naruto groaned for the umpteenth time this morning, a strip of linen cloth bound around his head and over his eyes to shield them from the light.

"Ugh not so loud Naruto, and why not, it's not like you paid fer yer drinks last night." Griff groaned, in just as much pain this morning as his companion.

"Noticed did ya, kind of surprising considering you were locked in a room with Belm's daughter, what's her name again?"

"Rita… and can I have my wallet back now?"

"Spoilsport." The blond pouted before handing a sack of gold over to the dwarf. "That's it, I'm never mixing drinks again, especially dwarven."

"A life lesson more should abide by." Griff agreed sagely before taking a swig from his canteen. "Not like you seemed drunk for half the time."

"I metabolize foreign toxins in my body at a rate comparable to lit gunpowder, would you believe that was only my second time actually smashed?" Naruto answered with a grunt. "The idea of drowning my sorrows away doesn't really work well, I stick to smokes, speaking of which you got one, it's been years since my last."

It didn't take long for Griff to toss a plain looking pipe and a bag of tobacco into his lap, Griff already lighting his own.

"Not what I'm used to, I generally stay away from pipes, they make me feel to old for them to be normal." He said starring at it skeptically.

"Regular stuff kills ya slowly so I heard, switched over ever since."

"High rate of metabolizing foreign toxins remember." Naruto retorted while placing several leaves into the pipe bowl. "Besides I figure someone will come along and knock me off before the cancer ever gets a chance." With a quick snap of his fingers and a little chakra manipulation he managed to light both of their pipes.

"Another trade secret?" Griff asked inquisitively.

"Hardly." Naruto snorted. "Where I come from this kind of trick would be considered showy and pointless."

"So then why learn it?"

"Because if anything is worth doing," he began before exhaling a large cloud of smoke, shaped like the symbol of the hidden leaf. "It's worth doing with style."

"Why am I not surprised when it comes ter you 'Mister I can disappear without trying and make off with your wallet'." Griff said while rolling his eyes in an annoyed fashion. "Or better yet, Mister I can make my sword kill you by gravity." He stopped in mid sentence to pat his pocket before growling. "Can I have my wallet back now?" Naruto at least had the decency to look sheepish as he passed Griff his wallet… again.

"Damn philistines, you just don't understand then pursuit for flashy, for something that people remember for a long, long time. Besides, those little showy and pointless tricks aren't always as pointless as people like to think. Some are better training then you could get otherwise with conventional means, others can actually lead into new discoveries, tinkering with the old, improving the original, adapting the ancient, they all lead to new paths. For instance, with a flick of my finger I have fire, now imagine me taking that and jamming it into your side, your eyes, throat, anywhere, now that's only one way to go about it. Think about what would happen if I expanded it to my whole hand, would you enjoy being hit in the face by a fist on fire, probably not."

"That's one brew I think I can do without." Griff conceded with a huff causing Naruto to laugh.

"So now I've answered one of your questions, you're going to answer one of mine now. How did you find where I was, I knew I did everything to get rid of my tracks and the wind should have gotten rid of any remaining trail so how?" He asked with genuine interest as he started a smoke ring version of tic-tac-toe against himself.

"Sally." Griff answered bluntly.

"Care to elaborate for the unenlightened here." Naruto asked with sarcasm evident.

"You be a hunter, ye should know this by now."

"Hardly what I would call myself but no, I'm clueless, and if I still have the mountaineers on me I want to know how they could find me." He pauses a moment before continuing. "Besides, it's better for the both of us if they don't; I already have too much blood on my hands that I'd like to forget. At this point I only have one person who I want dead, I'll kill him on my own time when I'm ready, until then I don't need the attention." He finished solemnly.

"Basically when a hunter enters a kind of bond with his companion, they in a way share information. Sally's nose and ears show me what she smells and hears, then I can manage it in ways she can't, it's a rather basic thing we learn. Distinguishing animals is easy enough; it's when you get to start distinguishing different races, humans, orcs, elves, that it all starts getting difficult. Doing this though, I can tell you what every animal is, its gender, and whether it's aggressive towards us within several feet. For it too work effectively though you would need to have met someone or something with the traits what you're searching for has, never thought my contributions to the war would have helped me. You lad, are an odd one, your base imprint that you put out to the world is one of being a human, however Sally says you also smell of a fox. The odd bit is the undercurrent of demonic energies that flows around your imprint. Care to explain?"

"Some things are better left buried Griff." Naruto stated with finality.

"**Buried, I'm hardly buried." **The fox's voice resounded through his skull. **"I'll be here with you forever brat, I must say though I much prefer you as you were before. You were so much more entertaining, it had been so long since I could enjoy the feeling of blood running through my fingers, the taste of human flesh between my teeth. And in some corners of your mind that you don't admit to yourself." **He could feel the beast grinning through the bars in its cage. "**You enjoyed it."**

A shiver crawled up his spine at that thought. He was a killer without thought back then, perhaps only slightly worse of one then he was during the war. It was disturbing to look back on what he was; he had been a loudmouth, a stubborn idiot at first, to become the calm killer that he was then and relatively now…

"And even more you wish you could forget completely." He finished as his mind kept going back through his past, the atrocities he had committed simply to survive.

"You've seen war boy." Griff wasn't asking, simply stating a fact as he saw it.

"In more ways then one." Naruto said while standing straight, his right hand resting inside one of his jacket pockets. Eyes scanning the horizons all around him, it was quiet, too quiet.

"Trouble?" Griff asked, coming to stand beside the blond haired warrior.

"Where's Sally."

"She should be still down by the Inn."

"Hey Griff, what was the first thing you ever said to me?" Naruto asked while secretly snapping his right hands fingers, spreading the fire to all five digits.

"Why would that matter, I don know." He replied in a confused tone.

"I'll refresh your memory then." Naruto ground out with a snarl, snapping his flaming hand into the dwarves face, digging his fingers into his eyes and face. Skin seared away quickly as the dwarf screamed in pain, all the while, its face began to contort, changing its facial structure to an entirely different person as Naruto's fingers dug deeper and deeper into its skull.

"He said I never let my guard down, and you know what imposter." He growled as his face contorted in anger. Withdrawing his bloodied fingers from the dwarfs face with a wet sucking sound, allowing it to fall back, dead before it even hit the ground. "He was right."

Before he could even take another step chains sprang up from out of the snow, looping around his body, binding his arms to his sides.

Slowly noticing that their prey wasn't resisting, the snow banks close to the captive started moving. Eventually they were revealed to be nothing more then cloaks, as pure white as the snow around them. Underneath each of them was a multitude of races, ranging from trolls to gnomes to the odd elf. None of them seemed to bear any of the insignias marking them as a mountaineer or a patroller, each of them however had a tabard on, black as the background with a blood red trim and a knife embossed on the front of the same color.

"_They aren't Mountaineers that's for certain…" _He thought to himself, still remaining to keep calm even in this situation.

"That was easy, I don't see why the tinker court was making such a beg deal about this guy." Began a younger looking human boy, a cocky grin spread across his face as he began to move forward. "And to think you were almost as bad as they were raider Shalla'tor. Perhaps your old age is finally catching up to you night elf, or better yet time is finally moving along." The human continued while looking at the dark skinned elf who was barely even registering the boy speak. Her, as no male has the right to a curvy figure like that, eyes continued to stare at Naruto's prone form, bound by the chains.

"Bounty hunters." He said slowly with obvious annoyance. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with your kind this quickly." Finishing with a look at the night elf that matched in intensity to the one she was giving him. The human much to his annoyance didn't like being ignored and decided it would be smart to stand right in front of him.

"You look at me monster." The human said forcefully before grabbing him by the jaw. "You've killed a lot of people you know that, the courts simply wanted you back alive, they never said anything about being in one piec…" He was swiftly cut off as Naruto smashed his head into the boy's skull, knocking him back with a cry of pain.

"You're annoying, you know that." Naruto said in a dismissing tone to the yelling human who was grabbing his most likely broken nose before turning his head back to the elf. "So, how long have you been planning this?"

"Does it really matter to you." The elf responded, her voice slightly melodious, if that was just her or her race in general he wasn't sure.

He attempted to shrug, however the chains made that relatively difficult. "Not really, it's kind of an ego thing to know just how much time and preparation I can all put to waste in under a second."

"Ye be underestimatin' us mon?" The troll asked, its accent carrying into the common tongue thickly, all the while, it kept an arrow knocked in its bow and aimed at his heart.

"Hardly, underestimating people is what gets them killed. So I'm pretty sure Griff wasn't in on it, how about Belm?" He needed to find out just how much they had told him could be trusted before anything else.

"You're an odd one you know that, most people would be trying to escape by now but you…" She tilted her head slightly to the side as she examined his completely relaxed form.

"I've been in chains for the past few years, a few minutes more wont do me any damage, at least here I'm not suspended in the air… or unable to rest my arms… or in constant pain. Can I stay here for a little longer?" he asked all too sweetly. Causing the already damaged human to snarl in outrage after setting his broken nose, after standing he grabbed Naruto by his neck. "You fucker! When we get back I'm going to fucking kill you for this, screw the courts this little shit is going to die."

"Well that might be a problem." Naruto intoned, still all too cheerfully for their tastes.

"And why be tha?" The troll asked just as the night elf gasped and ran forward with all the grace and speed of a panther.

"Why simple, how do you intend to hand in something when you're dead?" He said with a laugh just as the Shalla'tor got close. "Boom."

Several miles away, atop one of the higher peaks to the east of Kharanos, the real Naruto gained the last memories of his **Bunshin Daibakuha **clone. _"Feedback on that thing may be a bitch and all, but still worth it. Always is funny to watch people practically shit themselves when I say boom…" _He thought to himself with a chuckle as his canine companion came up behind him once again to the annoyance of his resident Kitsune.

"**Let me kill the fur bag already." **The fox pleaded out of frustration.

"_Sorry but, no." _He replied cheerfully much to the fox's annoyance.

Kneeling down beside the ever-prideful wolf so they were at eye level, he placed a hand on its furry head. "You're going to stick around with me aren't you?"

He would later swear the damn thing rolled its eye at him there. _"Probably considers me the stupid one."_

"Even if I don't want you to come along you annoying little bastard."

Much to his own amusement the wolf grinned at him before letting out what could only be considered its version of a laugh.

"Well then your going to need a name then you little arrogant bastard." He said before walking forward and dropping off the mountainside, landing on all fours with the grace of a cat. His companion followed a relatively safer route before dropping down right behind him. "Ah I've got it! How about Kenshiki?"

Well that's that, I swear to god if I ever decide to redo chapters in this story I'll kill myself. I must have rewritten parts in this chapter like seven times each and to be honest I'm still not happy with it, especially the dwarven speaking. You all know how a dwarf should sound, think of a drunken Irishmen and you'll have what a dwarf should sound like. Since I have never met a drunken Irish I can't really do a comparison. Now whoever wants to help me rewrite the dwarven parts of this page just give me a holler as I don't have the patience for it.

Reviews are life blood for creativity so please do so, good or bad just please say more then three words.

Don't have the energy for a longer note at the moment so I shall bid you a due

Stephen Wolfgang


	4. Reforging Steel

Well here I am everybody, back now with chapter four, I really do hope I can get into gear with churning out these chapters however the only way I see myself managing that is by shortening them which I generally refuse to do. However if enough people ask I will do so to make a more… routine schedule.

Now on with the chapter!

"The city-state nation of Stormwind was originally founded approximately a millennium before the First War by the descendants of the Arathi bloodline who migrated south from the nation of Arathor, and it ruled over the Kingdom of Azeroth. It had a long and peaceful history, with the king served loyally by the knights of the Brotherhood of the Horse and the clerics of the Order of Northshire. Prior to the First War, the Wrynn dynasty ruled over the entire kingdom. Azeroth's idyllic existence was shattered with the opening of the Dark Portal and the invasion of the orcish Horde. After a long and bloody war that cost the lives of both King Wrynn III and his son King Llane Wrynn, the orcs overran the entire kingdom, forcing the survivors to flee to Lordaeron. Anduin Lothar became regent lord, guiding the refugee nation in the name of the young Varian Wrynn. Stormwind was the first kingdom invaded by the Horde during the First War. Beloved King Llane was killed in the attacks, and it was in his name that Sir Lothar led the Alliance forces to take the city back. With Stormwind under its control again and serving as a strong base of operations, the Alliance eventually wrested most of Azeroth from the Horde's grip. The Alliance set to rebuilding then, calling on whoever could spare artisans. Now it is one of the few remaining great human cities. It boasts a powerful City Guard and a strong army, and it is a base of magical or divine study, and contemplation, in Azeroth. With the fall of the northern kingdoms, Stormwind is by far the most populated city in the world. Boasting a population of two-hundred thousand people (predominantly human), it serves in many ways as the cultural and trade center of the Alliance, even with remote access to the sea. The humans living in the city are generally carefree and artistic, favoring light and colorful clothes, cuisine, and art. However, the people of Stormwind find it difficult to accept Theramore's role as the home of the new Alliance, convinced not only that Stormwind should be the legitimate heir of Lordaeron's role in the past, but also that Theramore is doing little against the worsening situation within the Eastern Kingdoms."

Scoffing to himself at the history of this world, Azeroth, as it seemed to be called, and the people who resided in it. Snapping the leather bound tome shut with an audible clap, Naruto threw the thick volume into the fire at his feet. Watching with a detached amusement as the four hundred odd pages of pointless history managed to make an impressive light show.

"_Same as always, history books aren't worth the paper they're printed on… not that I paid for this of course but still."_ He thought to himself with a smirk. _"Now magic on the other hand, that's interesting."_

Looking around from his high vantage, Naruto scoured the Searing Gorge with disinterest from the top of a dark iron tower in the cauldron.

The ruined hell-scape that was the Searing Gorge stretched out before him. As much credit, as he was willing to give the dwarves for their prowess with a hammer and anvil, he really had to hand the worst picked base location award for them. Sure, they managed to sink the Point into the mountains backing with only one land entrance to normal people, it allows them to defend themselves viciously like cornered animals, and problem is the morons actually made themselves cornered animals by surrounding themselves.

To the southwest lay the Firewatch Ridge, the main command area of Dark Iron dwarves outside of the Spire, their golems and fire spiders populated the ridge as well making scouting difficult. He should know, it's usually what they pay him for.

In the south was the maw of the Cauldron, a slave camp of the worst kind, one where the prisoners are so broken they actually protect their taskmasters as Naruto had found out quite harshly. Let us leave that story of a Dark Iron, a sweaty ogre, and one relatively squished Naruto for another day.

That is not even starting to talk about the abundance of fire and magma elementals in that damn gate of hell. Safe to say he still had not discovered a pain free method of dealing with those semi-immortal monsters besides smashing the bands, which was leading to him losing a good deal of the sensitivity in his fingers.

The only other reprieve they had at the point were the gryphon and wyvern posts that could allow supplies and troops in and out of the area.

On the other hand since both the horde and alliance were both in the same place and not being allowed to kill each other tension between the two wind masters was high and definitely amusing when it was he, who manages to get the two to fight… and eventually stop once unconscious. Still the cease fire in Thorium Point managed to keep him safe for the duration of his stay, however long that may be.

Thankfully, because of his earlier actions to the east in the Dustfire Valley the brotherhood could start expanding outwards to accommodate the increasing population of the Point. During his quick stay in Thelsamar, he had perhaps been a _little _overzealous in his pilfering of equipment. Seriously how was he supposed to know that if the explorers league's maps went missing, or the majority of their parchment, or their history tomes and language translation guides, that they would be angry. Honestly, there was no reason for the mountaineers to be called in to deal with him, not for that minor stuff at least.

The ale on the other hand… that he could understand them coming for him.

It was only a few barrels anyway.

Seriously, ale going 'missing' is not a reason to bring out a steam tank! Well it could have something to do with a third of the tinker courts suddenly disappearing into thin air before they had finished leaving Ironforge.

So in return, he kind of… smashed the Stonewrought gate on his way out of Loch Modan, they really were not happy with him then.

The Thorium Brotherhood, and especially the dark iron sector of it had been especially difficult to deal with, they were quite willing to shoot him as soon as they found out about the bounty on his head, however that only lasted as long as they thought the person who put the hit on him was dead.

Technically the damn gnome is only pinned to the very roof of Ironforge above the great forge through the use of a few knives, but then again who knows how long a gnome can survive without food or water.

So he managed to make a rather profitable deal with them, they gouge whatever profits they can out of him as well as get him to do any jobs they need done, in return he and his furry friend get a safe place to stay as well as a single favor from the Brotherhood.

Well favor is not exactly the word for it, figure extortion if they thought he could be pushed around he would level the compound and start renting himself out as a mercenary. Either way in the end, he'll get himself a hand made and tailored set of armor from the brotherhood and from what he could tell it would be worth it.

Thus is why we find our former Kage sitting just south of Thorium point using a book and a magma elementals corpse for a fire. Not much had changed for him over the few weeks since his little escapade in Dun Morogh. His hair had finally grown back to the shoulder length he had it when he was still in his own world and the atrophied muscles that had plagued him for a good few weeks were now the corded steel strength of an upper class jounin.

On his way through Thelsamar, however he had managed to **legitimately **acquire himself a tailored set of simple dark brown travel clothes for himself as well as get his tattered and bloodstained Wendigo fur cloak patched up, tailored, and dyed an incredibly dark blue, almost a black. The hood had been straitened up and lengthened so it completely covered his hair and cast his entire face into shadow when it was raised, also the cloak could now actually be buttoned up slightly to obscure himself instead of leaving it open. He had paid extra for more of the fur to be imported in under an assumed name to create an overly large set of sleeves to work into the cloak; they passed down beyond his hands, obscuring them completely unless he raised his arms. The excess scraps of fur then were woven into a short scarf attachment, right at the base of the hood that could be wrapped around both his neck and the lower portion of his face easily enough.

This was perhaps the first thing he had actually paid for since his freedom and he intended to expand that list, he had no qualms taking food, drink, and paper from the residence he passed however even he drew a line at stealing something he personally had commissioned or that someone put their all into making.

Moreover, his sunglasses, never forget the sunglasses, not only do they allow him to actually do work during the day but above all else the look purely badass on him. The seals he had applied to the lenses managed to filter through most illusions he encountered which was a small amount much to his annoyance considering how much detail work and acid he had to steal to make the seals. For his own safety and peace of mind, he also applied a set of seals to the arms of his glasses to make them only come off with a small discharge of chakra along the seal array.

He would never live it down if he died because someone knocked off his glasses, and became too blinded to defend himself.

The only other visible item on him was the large leather bound tome that stayed strapped to his right side, this tome that used to belong to _Grelin Whitebeard_. Since he had picked it up almost a month and a half ago, it had literally tripled in size to accommodate his needs, in other words a storage scroll, or book in this case. His original idea was to go in and buy a scroll but when he learned that scrolls weren't exactly in style here he opted simply to expand his pilfered journal. Now the book held almost everything he carried from food, water, gold, little stumbled upon items, and lastly his larger weapons.

His entire form was essentially to disguise himself, for now as a traveling scholar, preferably one who also knew how to take care of himself perhaps later he would be a priest.

"_People always seem to trust priests, I don't know why I mean they take your money and offer a usually intangible blessing in return, then they leave and take anything else of value they can before moving on to the next. Town… who knows, maybe it's different here."_

He had managed to hide a pair of pure obsidian forged kunai he had commissioned from the brotherhood after his first job in a stitched-in section of his boots. Safe to say the blades had a slight red tinge to them now after their continued use in the Searing Gorge. The last addition to his slowly growing arsenal was his seal-forged tags and equipment, with the resources on hand he had managed to create for himself a good sized store of explosive tags and more that the dark irons of the cauldron hated him for.

Or, at least they would hate him if any ever survived dealing with him.

"So, get anything useful out of the book?"

"Na, bunch of garbage that just proves this world is just as war torn as our own, politics still suck, and apparently the majority of humans here run off a monarchy. So, you find it?" Naruto responded while standing up to face his identical copy, a massive grey and black wolf with only one eye at his side.

"I figured as much it would be, well better you then me, at least my head isn't filled with that useless garbage." The clone said before tossing a small sack at the original, which promptly flipped his book open to a new page and sealed away the bag in a puff of smoke.

"Handy." The clone noted with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed." The original replied while clipping the tome to his side once again. "So how much _Kingsblood_ did you and ken manage to find, can't really see how it grows out here?"

"Ugh, it doesn't damn dwarves just had to ask for something in the badlands didn't they, fucking ogres." The clone groaned with obvious distaste.

Naruto chuckled softly at his clone's annoyance. "It could be worse you might have had to head back north to Loch Modan, now THAT would have been a pain."

"Hardly, the only passage around here to the Badlands leads right past Kargath, and from what I heard they're still pissed at us for killing their wyverns." The clone replied with a shrug. "Can't blame them either, those things are a bitch to tame from what the wyvern tamer at the Point keeps telling us."

"Well how were we supposed to know they would attempt to kill us if we got close?" The original said in annoyance before turning to look at his clone.

"Blame it on the fox?"

"Blame it on the fox." Naruto finished with a grin

"**Oh yes, blame everything on me you miserable maggot of a mortal." **

"_Don't worry, I do you annoying bastard now go back to sleep, I prefer you more when your civil and destructive, and I actually like you when your asleep."_

"**And to think you were actually entertaining to talk to before you remembered me." **The fox growled in annoyance before retreating from his mind.

"So shall we get going, I'd hate for the dwarves to think I died, they may try to sell my armor, even worse they may try to replace me!" Naruto said with mock horror.

"Sure thing boss." The clone said before leveling a quick glare on his creator. "You even think of dropping me back down the cauldron and when I get out I will stab you." He said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Quickly snapping his arm into the smoke, he pulled out a silver ring emblazoned with a swirl and a flame. Rolling his eye's at his clones antics he placed the ring on his right hand that had two other identical rings on it.

It was an interesting discovery that he had unknowingly stumbled upon before he had made genin, Henge or transformation as it was called in common was far more versatile then it was made out to be in the academy. The first time he had unknowingly used it was his Oiroke no jutsu, originally he had passed it off as an oddity he had in the technique, not really inquiring to far into it until Tsunade herself had pretty much stared at him for half and hour after noticing. The Oiroke form wasn't just an illusion, an illusion couldn't interact with solid objects, and whenever he made it as a kid it always made him taller changed his body proportions, if a person would have tried poking him in the head back then they would have gone right through on a normal person, for him they touched solid skin.

Disturbingly enough it also changed around his internal organs… it was odd looking down and not seeing anything hanging.

Going to the bathroom turned into a right disturbing sight on infiltration missions as well.

His second discovery came later, shortly after he had become a genin during the wave mission, more specifically during the first encounter with Zabuza. At the time most people had passed it off but he had physically transformed himself, even now he wasn't entirely sure of the specifics of the process, but he had transformed organic material into inorganic. The very idea alone was something that most would either laugh off or toss him into an insane asylum for but he had done it, he became a shuriken. Of course, he did this all the time with his clones, which was possible since a clone was a chakra construct that could be molded into any needed form with enough control, but he had transformed himself, something that should be an impossibility beyond all laws of physics. That was an experience he never wanted to try again but it was still enlightening.

Therefore, in the end he had managed to create a transformation technique that effectively did exactly as its name said, thus where the ring idea came into play.

He always entertained the idea of turning into the wind right before he died but he unfortunately still hadn't figured out how.

"So shall we get going boy." Naruto said towards his canine companion before turning north towards the point and dropping off the towers edge.

With cat-like grace he landed on his feet, making not a sound before heading north at a leisure pace. Kenshiki, following at his side looking irritated on multiple levels at the layer of volcanic ash covering him, his growl of annoyance at his predicament continued to make Naruto grin.

That is until the little bastard bit his foot.

**Thorium Point**

"So you're back are ya _Hakaisha_." Came the rough, growling voice of the dark iron sentry.

"Yes, report to the taskmaster that temporary brotherhood agent _Hakaisha_ has returned to base camp. I'll deliver my report of enemy casualties, damages, and movements in one hour. Also send word to the Master Smith that his materials have arrived and I will be along to collect payment as per usual agreement in fifteen." Naruto spoke in a matter-of-fact military tone to the sentry using his old bingo book name for a cover.

With a nod, the sentry at the top of the hill turned and disappeared into the point and out of sight. However even as quick as it was Naruto had not missed the look of hatred directed at him from under the dwarf's helmet.

Watching the dark iron leave Kenshiki let out a small snarl to the creatures retreating form, thinking of nothing more then to get himself a new chew toy.

"_Fucking dark irons." _He thought with disgust, of all the dwarven races dark irons were the ones most likely to stab you in the back and walk over your corpse to get a gold piece. Vile little bastards had a mindset that would have made the old war hawk Danzo almost crack a smile at seeing it, get the job done, if a comrade… scratch that a possible meat shield was in the way of getting the operation done they had no problems pulling the trigger. Safe to say Naruto didn't like dark irons period and their time spent with the fire lord hadn't made them any better off.

Thorium point had expanded a good deal in the last few weeks since his arrival, it may have something to do with bounty hunters and more getting annoyed once they found him that their contract holder was essentially dead but who was he to complain. What had originally been a tower of dark iron and a single forge constantly working had grown in size to be almost a small town now. Thus was where Naruto came in providing easy access to the harder to acquire materials out there, it had him out of the point for days on end, and he couldn't be happier for that. Attempting to seriously train near the point was damn near impossible, either an ogre or an elemental always comes along and ruins what he's attempting, or B we have some wanabee adventurer attempting to find out why he's so strong.

He had to give them this, their good practice for his gen-jutsu. A rogue or one of the magic classes could notice and break them but your average warrior… not so lucky.

Following a path he knew all too well after his past weeks here, he and his companion found themselves in front of the hastily erected inn. It was definitely nice for being a quick make but he had seen the crafty little buggers do worse in more time, perhaps dwarves just worked better under pressure.

It was built directly into the rock walls that made the point a natural fortress, from the outside all there was, was a set of stairs leading up solid stone to a single wooden door. However, dwarves seemed to prefer the expression do not judge a book by its cover, once you walk in that door the entire complex was illuminated with ornate hanging lamps and chandeliers that reflected off the polished tile floor. He never did forget the first time he came here and Ken couldn't get a grip on the tile and ended up sliding around a bit.

Behind the receptionist desk was the innkeeper, a rather pretty face hid behind light brown curly hair that reached just to the mid of her back.

"Your usual room _Hakaisha_ sir?" She asked as soon as she heard the door close, her back still turned to him as she continued to sweep. Inwardly however Naruto winced slightly; there was no point in being quiet if you're the only one who can get in without a sound in the whole town.

"I'll only be the night Maria; I'll be out of your hair before morning." Naruto stated while slowly taking his cloak off and eventually tossing it on top of Kenshiki who was already lounging about.

While he was doing that Maria as she was now known was pulling a small key off a hook behind her before turning. "You're inside you know, it's polite to take off your glasses as well as your coat." She began with a small glare at said eye ware before her eyes locked on what was slowly falling onto her newly cleaned floors. "Please tell me that's not ash on you both." She finished with a glare directed at the pair that caused Naruto to scratch the back of his head sheepishly.

What happened next could be described only as the Kokuangyou no Jutsu for the former Kage. One moment he was about to start apologizing to the only slightly annoyed women in front of him, the next his vision went black as a loud sneezing noise went through the room.

Blinking slightly to clear their vision, the blonde, and the brunette turned to look at the source of said noise to find a now pristinely white Kenshiki instead of the black and gray. Looking around however they found the once clean room now covered from the walls to the ceilings as well as each other covered in ash. Kenshiki at least had the decency to look slightly less smug then he usually did while attempting to scratch his nose.

"_For a civilian, she sure as hell knows how to project some killing intent!" _He thought after being thrown for a loop at that one, before cocking his head to the side slightly. _"Are her eyes red, huh, that's something I haven't seen in awhile… how long did she spend cleaning again?"_

"Ummm, I'm going to go dust off outside." He said quickly while pointing to the door and disappearing via _shunshin_ leaving one very pissed off woman and a rather amused/terrified wolf.

Let it be known, among humans, animals, demons, and even gods there was one thing that stayed true no matter the race.

Hell hath no fury like a women scorned.

"Busy day agent?" Master Smith Burninate asked without turning away from his forge to view the intruder to his den. Once again, being the only one able to appear in the village with just a swirl of wind and leaves kind of narrowed down the options as to who just barged in.

"You could say that." Naruto admitted with a cringe, he knew he was in deep shit when he saw Maria again.

After his rather quick escape from Maria's clutches Naruto had high tailed it to the Master Smith's forge to arrive on time. Last thing he needed around here was for people to think he was not punctual, and in a world where time meant money being late with a dark iron was a sure way NOT to be paid.

Burninate as he was readily known was a perhaps the only dark iron Naruto could actually admit to liking on a minimal level, he lacked his races normal greed for one thing simply preferring to work his metals all day. That and it may have something to do with how Burninate was both the one who got him his contract with the Thorium brotherhood and the one who was crafting his armor, earlier policies still apply.

Deciding to remain silent for the time to respect the dwarf while he worked his craft, knowing exactly how it felt when people dropped in on him while he was working.

Leaning back slightly against the wooden posts of the tent before unsealing one of his more entertaining books he had picked up about the principles of magic and began to read. It was rather soothing to read while listening to the rhythmic beating of the smith's hammer on the items he was working. The hiss of the hot metal being submerged in water every break in the beat helped to keep his sense of time while the heat of the fires soothed his body.

He did however take note when he heard Burninate start humming a low tune, at first he had passed it off as nothing but something to help him focus however, he soon began to feel a minute amount of magic in the air. It seemed to crawl up his skin and raise the hairs on his neck as the somber tune progressed. The aura of magic even began to fluctuate slightly depending on the pitch, feeling like it was dancing like the wind around him at the highs and roll of his skin like water at the lows.

Eventually the song faded into nothing as the last of the hammer beats fell, the magic in the air seemingly gone with the final notes.

Activating the ability known to all of his kind the smith changed his hand to a stone-like form and grasped the slowly cooling metal, checking it for defects before setting it aside.

"Handy ability." Naruto noted aloud before groaning at his own pun.

"Don't start so early in the day, my headache with all the new folks here setting orders isn't going to get any better with you pulling crap like that." The smith sighed in annoyance before massaging his temples.

Rolling his eyes overdramatically at the aging dwarf, Naruto quickly unsealed three sacks, one was as large as your average dwarf and the others being a little larger then a money pouch. "Well at least this should make your headache go away a little quicker. A shipment of two-hundred twenty Incendosaur scales, you make me scrape those things off again, and I will toss you off a cliff. A shipment of a hundred and ten coal pieces set to dwarven standards-"

"How did you know they were dwarven standards?" B. interrupted with a raised brow.

"Whose corpses do you think I took them from?" Naruto replied, a grin stuck on his face before continuing. "Lastly is your order for the ungodly amount of four-hundred forty Kingsblood leaves. You ever make me look at this crap again and rest assured I wont just throw you off a cliff, I'll follow you down with something big and heavy, preferably an ogre just to show you how it feels." He finished with a glare as B. winced.

"You're still mad about that aren't you?"

"What do you think?" Naruto retorted sarcastically while throwing a glare. "Well unless you have another job for me right off the bat I have to report to the taskmaster now, we have some interesting movements to the east that I think he would want to know about."

"I don't have anything for you right away, were still dealing with Maltorius's betrayal, but then again you should already know that. Just drop by later on though, apparently, the eggheads have an update on that weapon you brought, bloody goblins, wouldn't trust them even as far as I could throw them."

"That's only because you can throw the average goblin a couple of feet." Naruto replied in agreement. "So how much more do I owe you?"

"Do you actually want a number?" Just because the two were on relatively good terms did not mean B. wasn't willing to gouge as much labor and gold as he could from his fellow agent.

"Ugh, forget I asked. I'll be back after I deal with the taskmaster, if he doesn't have a job he needs me for right away I'll be here until tomorrow night I guess." Naruto began with a cringe before settling into a neutral tone.

"Good, I should have your armor finished by then." The weathered smith said as a small grin threatened to break out. "You might want to hurry up paying for it or I may just sell it to the next person who walks in."

"You wouldn't dare." Naruto gasped in horror.

"You're right I guess." The smith admitted with a small sigh.

Letting out a breathe he didn't even know he was holding Naruto turned to walk out of the forge only to notice the small smile of the dark iron's face. "I would probably only sell parts of it since you paid for a good portion of it already."

"I'm just going now before I have a heart attack, okay?" Naruto groaned out before turning serious. "Be careful Burninate, I can't tell you much, just don't leave the camp for the next few days."

"Fine, whatever, get out of here ya damn blonde, you're messing with the atmosphere." The smith grumbled before turning back to his work, not even paying attention as the young Jinchuuriki disappeared in a swirl of leaves, the serious look never leaving his face.

The tower had gotten a slight upgrade to it since he arrived at the point. When he had first arrived, the tower was nothing more then the bare iron that held it up about twenty feet over his head, a set of winding stairs lead all up to the viewing platform where the majority of the sentries were placed. The problem was that any half decent shot out there with a bow or a gun could take them out easily enough without any cover to protect them. Of course, since all Brotherhood agents when not on active assignments take rotations on guard duty, Naruto quickly brought the problem to their attention; really, he was thinking for the others, it had nothing to do with the fact that being shot is painful.

Really. Fucking. Painful.

Therefore, he had quickly accepted going on a payment free mission to go find the resources they needed to make some fortifications on the tower. That was how he found the Kargath pass into the badlands and the horde outpost on the other side of it. When they told him, they needed mostly wood to build the fortifications they didn't expect him to come back with an entire building worth. So after buckling down and getting to work they managed to completely enclose it into a more suitable bunker. Thus is the story as to how the once dull watchtower became slightly less dull and a full on command post instead of a watchtower.

"**Your sarcasm levels are impressive as always." **The demon lord growled sarcasm dripping from its voice.

"_Why thank you I do try oh so hard." _Naruto replied to the great demon, just as sarcastically.

"**Which one of us is being worse at the moment?"**

"_Does it really matter?"_

"**I have a reputation to maintain."**

"_You're sealed inside of me." _He deadpanned.

"**Point made… so when are you getting laid."**

"_I am not having this conversation with you, not again."_

"**And why."**

"_Because the last time, I woke up in the forest of death with more dead animals then I want to think about around me. Then when I get back to the village I find Hinata unconscious overtop my desk with a grin on her face and more women demanding that I take responsibility for my actions then ever before. Need I even mention how Kurenai attempted to castrate us when I saw her for the exact same fucking reason."_ He thought with a shudder.

"**Oh come on like that will.-" **

"_No."_

"**But." **

"_No, and were here."_ He pretty much growled at the fox while stepping through the doorway.

The inner part of the tower was almost as plain as it had previously been; three unadorned walls and one with magic reinforced glass surrounded him. In the center of the room was a single map of the Redridge Mountains in all their charred and blackened glory, the map was being looked over by none other then the aged task master.

"What took you, your report was scheduled a few minutes ago and I have a business to run." The golden armored form of Taskmaster Scrange rang out through the room with an arrogant tone.

"_Get over yourself you annoying old fucker, I wonder how much I could get melting down that armor of his, although the dwarf blood in it may lower the carrot rating." _Naruto just snorted. "Your receptionist is a bitch, that's not my fault."

"I might have believed that load of dragon shit if I actually had a receptionist _agent._" Scrange replied, clearly pissed off at being made to wait and emphasizing Naruto's rank.

"_Well this little shit wants to play that way does he." _Naruto inwardly snarled, if it weren't for the fact that he needed the bastard for his pay checks he would have already been found with his throat slit in bed. His temper had been short with nothing to really distract or challenge him lately, even for him however this was a bit much. Biting back the retort and the odd amount of bloodlust with almost visible effort, Naruto managed to keep his tone respectful as he apologized for his lateness.

"Begin your report _Hakaisha." _The dwarf said attempting to keep his own temper and influenced blood in check.

Seeing the dwarf back down Naruto proceeded to overlay his findings on top of the map, first pointing directly south of the point, the cauldron. "As you know, we have been hampering the operations inside the cauldron for the past few weeks, from what I can tell we've accomplished jack. The elementals are appearing faster then ever and the more effort we put into wiping them out seems only to redouble their own, their close to whatever their looking for and they know it."

"Moving on is the reports of movement to the south east, well their true, the Blackrock's have been moving anti-air equipment along the mountain ranges, their attempting to cut off our escape routes. The only exit I was able to find was far to the west or heading north and circling back around their defensive line." Naruto stated methodically circling certain key areas with a red pen. "The majority of their anti-air forces are set in here, here, and here."

"Did you find the supplies we requested?" The dwarf interrupted with a scowl, obviously not enjoying what he was hearing.

"No, the crates were all raided and the gryphons and wyverns that flew them in all had their throats slit."

At hearing this, the dwarf's armored hands smashed onto the wooden table, causing it to crack with the strain of the blow. "Damn, their getting rid of our means of movement."

"I'll admit, their underhanded nature got the drop on me, I figured they would have at the least tried to capture the creatures for their own use…" Naruto began slowly. "Go look at the entrance to the spire and you will see exactly what has happened to our birds. I'll admit it's not a pretty sight."

"Continue with your report."

"Ogre activity in the area is the same as always, I never expected that brainless species to actually know how to reproduce and I sure as hell didn't need to see it." Naruto added with a grimace.

With a flick of his hand, an X appeared to the east of the Point. "I managed to close off the Incendosaur spawning pit here, I don't know how long it will hold, but at least it gives some time of peace out there. The problem is the main one in the slag pit, the slaves keep digging up anything I do to close them in."

"Kill them?"

"Tried, not worth the effort and resources. Lets face it, they're expendable, I would be better off hunting their taskmasters and slavers for all the good that did."

"**Killing something is always worth the effort."**

"_That depends on the person."_

"**No, how much you torture someone depends on the person, killing is always worthwhile."**

"_Can we continue this later? I'd rather not ignore my 'esteemed' contract holder more then needed."_

"**Ah yes knifes in the dark, cloaks and daggers and all that crap. You creatures really should just kill each other off, it's not like you have any other entertainment value."**

"The Kargath pass's security is getting tighter every time you send me through."

"Do your job agent, don't question your orders and you will still have your head."

He did his best to ignore the barb, however the strain in his voice was more then enough for even a genin to notice his irritation. "Activity to the north among the undead confirms the earlier rumors I managed to gain from passing through horde agents." He decided against mentioning the lengthy torture and interrogation sessions to get said information… hey at least he found out the undead actually could be tortured if you know the right way. "Someone alive has made it out of the Undercity, from what I hear the old hag in black up north wants whoever she just lost back, bad. Last news said the fugitives were heading towards the Argent Dawn with an escaping paladin as well as a mage and a forsaken priest who remembered a bit more about his life then he should have."

"Do we have names?"

He grunted a little in annoyance. "Nothing complete, the paladin's surname's apparently Lightblade. The undead is Trevor, no surname. I haven't even heard the mage mentioned with a name. The last one is someone named Calia, no surname once again. Honestly is it so hard for people to remember names when they're asked." He decided it would be best to keep his suspicions to himself for the moment.

"Continue with your report, what of the other leads?"

"The old rumor of the _Steam warrior_ cadres is false, there have been no sightings of them in the area from any of the other scouts, and I haven't found a single sign of their weapons fire to get anything conclusive. Gnomes and goblins are never subtle, or at least they are not when they mix. One of my contacts told me that all of the gnome mercenary cadres are being called back to Gnomeregan for aid in the reconstruction efforts as well as to provide none-automated defense for a time." He snorted in annoyance at the memories of his escape. "It's about time they realize a machine isn't going to solve all their problems. I'm going to level with you on this one, pull back the men, get everyone inside the point for now, take no missions, get every last light wielder out of the gorge, and let no one new in on foot."

The dwarf looked ready to argue but the serious look on Naruto's face was more then enough to silence him. "The _Cult of Forgotten Shadow_ is in the gorge, they have a _Graven one_, and it got its hands on a dragon corpse."

Scrange put his head in his hands as the revelation settled in. "By the fire, just how strong is this thing to raise a dragon, I've only heard of mortals being raised. How many others know of this?"

"None, I warned the master smith not to leave the camp for a few days but I didn't tell him why. They should just pass through if we do not engage them, and I'm not looking forward to whoever does cross their path."

"Good, you mentioned this cult?"

"Take every tenant you know from the church of the holy light and then twist it so it centers to your own desire, then you will have a rough idea of the cult." He said in disgust. "The group that _thing _was with consisted of a pair of _Dark rangers_, one _Ascendant_, and one _Death knight. _Add an undead dragon into the mix and were in deep shit if they attack. A _Graven one_ I can fight, winning against one with a dragon may be a bit of a stretch, but a _Shadow ascendant_ is something even I would lose against from what I've read." Stories of shadow ascendants destroying entire brigades with ease were common in the tome he had found on the Cult, the idea that they only got more powerful continued to worry him.

"_On the other hand I'm pretty sure almost every shinobi out there would love to get their hands on ascendant abilities."_

"Their heading north, probably back to _Silverpine Forest _and their base of operations, if they come into the town don't attempt to stop them, keep your tongue in check, and get them the hell out as fast as you can, give them a gryphon or a wyvern to wherever they want, the faster they are out the better." Naruto continued, venting his agitation towards the situation.

"Please tell me that's everything." The dwarf managed to say, his dark skin ashen in fright and all traces of his former arrogance gone. Turning his head back up to look at his agent he manages to get out between worried breathe. "Leave, I need time to think." The dwarf finished with a quick salute, placing his right fist over his heart and nodding his head.

"As you wish." Naruto replied, returning the salute before leaving in a swirl of leaves only after walking towards the door.

It took every last bit and piece of his restraint NOT to let go at the moment. His rage was threatening to boil over and was mixing with the Kyuubi's bloodlust, showing its form in his eyes that were a dark blue in color now with red bleeding into the center.

"Let me get this straight, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong through any of this." He ground out, staring into the goblins orange and black eyes as his hand loosened its grip on the small green creature's neck.

"OKAY! OKAY! Just don't drop me!" The goblin, gasped holding onto Naruto's arm for dear life as he was held over the edge of the camp, just above a fifty foot drop straight down.

"Good boy," Naruto started all too sweetly as he stared into the goblin's small beady orange and black eyes. "So, you tell the master smith you have something to tell me a few days ago as you knew I would see him." Watching the goblin nod hastily he continued. "Now, when I arrive here you decide to charge me for your work up front first of all, I don't mind that in the least bit, I really don't." He continued, conceding that point to the goblin that was still a quivering wreck.

"_Note to self, carry a camera around for future blackmail against goblins, image of power and authority seems to be a need in their society."_

Reaching back, he pointed at the piece of machinery that bore some of the outer markings of his confiscated gun. "Now, with complete trust in you I had handed that over to you thinking that you would be able to expand its workings to fit my size, and you go and break it. Still with me?" He queried as his expression started to smooth into one of cold, indifferent neutrality. Getting a nod from the goblin that was for all intents and purposes starting to foam at the mouth. "Then in your goblin envisioned forms of brilliance try to take apart the mechanisms inside it until you cannot actually put it back together. Later however you have a brain blast in that over-sized cranium of yours and figure out a way to make it into something else actually useful."

In the blink of an eye, Naruto's grip on the goblin's throat had dropped away and switched to its wrist, causing it to dangle even lower off the edge. The goblin had not even noticed the change in position until the whiplash made its way through its body. "And then, you have the balls once I get back to try and charge me again at double the usual price for whatever it is you intend to make upfront without any ideas testing or blueprints."

"Well actually-"The goblin attempted to stammer out but was cut off by being dropped down a few inches.

"Now explain to me why I should not drop you right now."

"Because it's a guaranteed success."

Again, he was dropped a few inches.

"Because it will be the first of its kind in the entire world!"

Dropped several inches yet again.

"BECAUSE IT'S FREE!"

With a grin on his face, Naruto lowered the goblin until he could not even see its green ears beyond the rock. A few seconds later, he pulled his arm back, flinging the goblin behind him. With a skid, the goblin landed face first in the ground, twitching ever so slightly as he came to a stop in front of his work area.

"Good to hear that, you're such a generous soul aren't you." Naruto finished while sitting down in a chair and leaning back. "Now, care to explain exactly what you intend to do with this." He said pointing to the small pieces of metal lying across the table.

"Something small, silent, ranged, and with the power to make a good explosion to liven the world up." The goblin elaborated quickly already at work trying out different designs and ideas. "What can you use, how good is your accuracy?"

Reaching into his pocket, Naruto withdrew a small silver coin and knelt down to one knee. With a casual flick, the coin was spinning through the fast enough to seem as one solid ball. Then seemingly, without a care he reached into his right boot and faster then the eye could see whipped one of his two kunai into the air.

A small Klink sound rang out from up above as the kunai descended back to earth. Stretching out an arm he caught the kunai point up with the silver coin pierced through the center still attached to the point. "Pinpoint and I can use anything given enough time, preferably one-handed though."

"Concealable as well from your usual order for weapons." The goblin offered with a grunt while crossing out several of the designs for being too bulky.

"Indeed, wouldn't do for someone to know I'm going to shoot them before I actually shot them."

"Now how are you intending to pay-"

"I'm not, I thought this was free." Naruto said all too sweetly while looking fiendishly between the goblin and his Kunai. _"Ok policies aside here, this little bastard has been pissing me off for weeks."_

"Goblins do not work for free. I am going to need parts for this that I don't have as this is gnomish technology, something that the majority of my own equipment does not react well with." The goblin peered at him with greedy questioning eyes, seemingly regaining his confidence.

"Fine, I'll pay for the new equipment." He replied, feigning annoyance while reaching down to un-strap his tome and summon his money pouch from inside. With a poof of smoke, the fist sized back of change appeared and he fished out handful of copper coins. With the coins still hidden to the goblin, he set a single seal on the inner lining of each coin. Lastly after he was finished 'counting' the coins he tapped each of the seals and let a small trickle of chakra enter into the seal, transforming the copper coins into gold right before his eyes.

Placing the handful of gold coins onto the table, he slid them towards the greedy looking goblin who quickly swiped them up. Starring at the coins for a second before taking a quick bite to check if they were real, when nothing happened to them he began counting before Naruto cut him off.

"Forty gold coins should be enough for what you're asking. I want updates and results though; if I find my money is being wasted again…**I will be coming for you." **Naruto finished dramatically with a demonic undertone before slowly walking away.

"_I wonder if he will ever realize its only forty copper pieces… probably not."_

_The next morning_

He moved with a serpent like grace along the rock, never standing still for a second, always flowing from one move to the next as he parried against an unseen foe. The mantra in his mind playing over and over again, as he dropped low for a leg sweep with his feet barely touching the ground.

It had not taken him too long to find the perfect training area for his rusty skills, his time spent constantly on scouting missions only made it easier for him. He was currently to the north of Thorium point, inside the mountain ranges separating the Searing Gorge and Dun Morogh. His previous problems with training were no longer, well, a problem here. The only access for him to get into the border of this area was by wall walking up shear cliffs, an exercise on its own, or by air, which no one would do. Thus, he could raise as much hell as he wanted while here without drawing any unnecessary attention.

He did do some minor training out front of the point however if he was needed to stick around he would do so, which led to Dark Iron envy of his power.

Déjà vu anyone?

"_Elemental manipulation is pure concentration."_

Using his planted hand, he pushed off the ground, continuing the sweeping motion upwards into the air in a jackknife form.

"_To truly master your element you must be moving in synch with it." _

Continuing the same flowing movement, he snapped a hand out, placing it on the ground and redirecting his body to a vertical position before flipping back words, extending his legs, and catching his unseen enemy on the chin.

"_Flow as your element does; change your emotions and your intentions to match its own." _

Landing on all fours he quickly stood up while slashing his arms out in wide arcs at neck level on either side of him. With a single nod of his head and a twitch of his fingers, he formed a Kage Bunshin right behind him, mirroring his stance.

Stepping forward as light as a feather with his right foot while pulling his arms in towards him in a circling motion. Ending facing his clone in a low stance, his left foot now straight while his right was bent low almost at a ninety degree behind him. His left arm, low with his palm forward while his right was behind him at head level with each of its fingers spread like a claw.

"_When you are in synch with your element you must then find the ignition that sparks its transformation into the world."_

Focusing his chakra to his fingertips, he began splitting them repeatedly, grinding their edge against one another for what felt like an eternity. As the chakra sharpened to a fine edged blade, the original and the clone pushed off their back legs while slashing their rear hand downwards to the ground. Before their fingers had even touched the ground five small scratch marks, no thicker then a centimeter traced their way along the ground before moving continuing back into their spar.

"_Still too slow, precision mixing isn't working as well." _Naruto thought to himself in a monotone as he continued his even matched fight against his clone. Now neither was trying to hard to hit each other, simply preferring to reform the muscle memory he once had that made his advanced senses so dangerous to his enemies.

Underneath the flaring sleeves of their cloaks, the pair of clones quickly made a single half seal for the Kage Bunshin bringing another three each into existence. Nothing needed to be said as the new clones quickly launched themselves at the original. Dancing around their attacks while throwing the occasional series of wind blades where he could, the fight never leaving the ring of kunai stuck into ground, forming the boundaries of their melee.

Away from the fight, an unnaturally thick mist obscured an even greater area then the ring melee. Inside the zero visibility mist were twenty-five Naruto clones, their nasal passages sealed off using a seal imprinted on the area.

Inside the mist, not a sound could be heard; it was here that he trained his stealth combat, regaining his silent killing perfection. The exercise was simple, twenty five clones in one restricted area, no sight and no smell to aid them it was a last man standing exercise. Relying on nothing but their hearing alone to pick up the imperceptible movements of their enemies, they were to eliminate each other one by one. The moment the first clone died the test was to remove him without making a sound alerting another clone to the killer's presence. It did not matter really how many clones were placed inside, it was how small of an area they were pushed into that counted.

Lastly scattered just about anywhere they could in the mountain range were Naruto clones training themselves with every element nature they could. He had once been told that most jounin have at least two elements some with three, his original two were fire and wind due to his own chakra and the fox's.

Now however, since he had the time and the lack of people chasing him he decided it was time to take up the same challenge that made both Jiraya and Orochimaru deadly, mastery over all five normal chakra natures. However, there were only ten clones working on that, two clones for each element. The rest were all working on his Nin-jutsu, seal stockpile, and chakra control.

A small shockwave sent tremors through the mountain range as a ball of fire could be seen slightly in the distance along the range. While this was happening, Naruto was in the middle of battling it out with close to twenty clones before gripping his head in pain.

The fist that hit him afterwards did not help his headache.

With a glare, he dispelled the clone who had just punched him as it looked away sheepishly.

Ordering the rest of the training clones to move elemental combat the original headed out to the source of the blast, deciphering the distance to be almost thirty kilometers.

Sorting through the memories of the destroyed clones, he tried to piece together a picture of what just happened. However, the words "OH Shit," kept coming up from the majority of them as they were consumed by flame.

One thing was certain though; the flames had not come from the clones. Going through a mental checklist of possible reasons as to what could have caused the explosion he was already starting to dislike the answer.

While running he created a single Kage Bunshin with the orders to dispel itself as soon as they found out what caused the explosion.

The pair started to slow down as the heat from the blast area gradually rose higher and higher. Nodding to each other the pair disappeared as Fumeizatsuki took effect once again.

As they continued closer to the target, they could clearly distinguish the blast area, the rising temperature showing as visible distortions in the air. The hiss of molten rock rang through the air to an almost deafening level.

Closer still brought the heavy smell of sulfur and… rotting flesh.

With a frown, they continued on expecting the worse. Yet even their expectations were blown away at the smoking crater they found as they crested the final ledge.

In the center of the blast area, the once black stone was now glowing white with the intense heat from the explosion. Radiating outwards from the center were smaller tendrils of white hot magma, slowly cooling off as it escaped the immediate explosion area.

The air around the blast area was simply saturated in power. In the center of the blast he could clearly make out the remnants of his own wind chakra, the fact that some of it was still there showed this was no accidental cross fire between clones.

The pair's eyes darted around as they scanned the area. _"Left, right, not in front, and not behind, underground is not an option, that only leaves ABOVE!"_

Snapping his eyes skyward as a shadow descended over him, he turned in a flash only to be consumed in ghostly flames.

Author's note

Well everybody here is the next chapter, now before I get a whole lot of WTF questions of what's going on I will explain. As I said before I am going by the LORE of warcraft, not simply WoW. For those who know this will understand that not everyone is divided into warrior, paladin, hunter, mage, priest, shaman, warlock, rogue, druid, and death night just as the ten races provided aren't the only races. Thus, I am introducing some of the prestige classes who will be slowly introduced throughout the course of the story.

Now second part of my talk. For those curious about B. doing magic I decided to get a bit creative in this as they never actually mention just how magic is channeled and used, thus I get free reign. In other words expect to see a whole bunch of different ways magic can be formed, some are my own original ideas such as the magic singing as shown by B. today to other ideas from other manga out in the world. Trust me; fun shall be had with it.

Lastly the Thorium Brotherhood. Mainly I did this because I have never seen it done, in all the stories like this, I've read it's turned into the same old Naruto gets dropped in to Azeroth, meets a princess and goes wandering off to go unite the races. Honestly, give it up people that bull will not happen; my approach here will be a bit different however. Naruto will be alone for a good portion of this starting story, I am leading up to something here don't worry however for awhile he will be a mercenary of sorts selling his blade to the highest bidder, the whole nothing personal its just business kind of routine. For now the brotherhood simply holds his contract as he gets his armor which I would like to point out I might need some help designing to any ideas would be nice, my only rule is that it's a realistic mix of armor types as well as a set of armor a shinobi would wear, he is NOT a knight.

On that note, however I will end this rant, read and review please even if you do leave flames.

Stephen Wolfgang.


	5. Immortality has its limits

It was only by pure instinct that he had thrown up a thick layer of chakra to shield himself from the flames, giving himself enough time to dodge by rolling to the side. The shield held while he was in the flames for the few scant milliseconds, negating the majority of the damage that would have likely killed him; however, that was not to say he was in good shape. The raw physical and magical power of the flames had covered him from head to toe. It felt as if his very life force was being ripped from him inch by inch.

His feet never touched the ground for more then a second as he placed almost half the craters distance between himself and his opponent. He cursed himself for his own complacency while noting his clone had dispelled itself as ordered. _"Too close for comfort, smart move though, using the general interference from the explosion to mask itself. On another note, how the hell did he see me?"_

He inspected himself with a quick glance, not taking notice of the state of his clothing, more concerned with dousing the odd flame still stubbornly clinging to his body.

Pushing down the last remnants of the pain, he turned his attention fully upon the one who intruded upon his training.

It was obvious whom he was facing, the very same creature he had tracked down several days ago during his scouting mission, a graven one. From the looks of it, the abomination of nature had come prepared for battle.

He had to admit they were quite the pair disturbingly enough, the Graven one whose pale, wrinkled face stared at him with black eyes underneath the dark red hood of his robe. Overtop of the robe was a set of what looked like bleached white plate armor, yet with a closer inspection turned out to be a mix of shattered bone fragments pieced together. At its sides, he could make out the white handles of the creatures bone scythes, looking more like a pair of sickles then a scythe.

With a loud thud, the Graven Ones familiar landed directly behind its master. The beast of a dragon stood just over twenty feel tall, by dragon standards barely entering adulthood. The foul stench of decay hung in the air, emanating from the creature's torso, where it's still magically beating heart remained, along with its lungs and esophagus, which allowed it to breathe its spiritual fire.

"_Hmm… well I really have to say I wasn't expecting anyone to be able to see me when my jutsu was active. Learn something new everyday." _Naruto thought to himself with a grunt of annoyance. "_There went my usual means of dealing with these guys."_

He was snapped out of his thoughts as his instincts simply screamed at him to move. Quickly sidestepping to the left he just barely felt something on the edge of his senses. The next moment he hissed as pain suddenly shot through his right side, quickly looking down he found no wound, or even a cut in his clothes to his surprise.

"The hell?" He said through gasping breaths as the pain slowly continued to spread from the spot on his ribs.

"You are already dead." The Graven One said calmly, as if it was not surprised in the least.

Pushing the pain aside as best he could, he drew one of his kunai and sliced open his clothing along his side. What he found could at best be considered a nightmare of medical work. There was no wound to speak of, there wouldn't need to be to cause the damage it did.

The skin where the pain had originally blossomed from was a slight purple now, the skin flaking off with every breath he took, the signs of necrosis already showing. Spreading out from the dead area, he could see his own veins turning a sickly blue; boils were forming and popping as it spread along his skin. All throughout this he could feel the Kyuubi's chakra fighting against whatever was causing the damage with everything it had.

"Interesting, most would have had their heart rot within a few seconds of the injection." The Graven One said without emotion as it walked towards him. "Indeed I was right about you, a true wellspring of latent death energies, and to think it is contained in a single body."

Two gnarled, bony hands slowly drew the pair of bone scythes along its waists. The grinding sound of the bone against bone sent a shiver down his spine as he watched the blades come out with a practiced ease.

"_Kyuubi!"_

"**Attacking on a cellular level, difficult to contain, remove the infected cells." **The fox called back sharply, unable to divert its attention from the power slowly destroying his host body.

He mentally nodded in thanks before bringing his left hand in front of his face. With a quick snap of his fingers, a small red flame burst into light, hovering slightly above the tips. In his opposite hand, still holding steady above the decaying skin he quickly manipulated a small pocket of Wind Nature chakra to hold in place on his ribs.

Flashing the Graven One a small grin of defiance he said with determination. "Sorry I don't feel like dying just yet asshole, go find your own source of death." And with that as the Graven Ones eyes widened slightly in surprise, he moved his flaming hand to the wind pocket. The grin never left his face as the explosion quickly shot out.

The blinding flash of light had come first, followed by a small concussive shock wave that rippled out, kicking up dust and stone with little effort. It had only been for less then a second but that had been enough. His entire right side had almost melted away from the heat, black burn marks spread all along his arms, chest, and face. The bones of his ribcage were showing a startlingly darker color then usual as his stomach was slowly reforming one of its walls.

"**I do not care how much pain our body is in right now whelp, you WILL move now and will not stop until he is dead…er" **The fox growled at him through his pain filled haze, feeling as his muscles slowly knit themselves back together at an agonizing pace.

Focusing solely on the pain, he brought his mind back to the forefront, using his returned concentration to quickly body-flicker to gain cover in the hills.

Turning to his familiar the Graven one nodded, causing the skeletal dragon to take off with a roar, rising high into the sky on soundless wings.

Watching his pet fly into the air, the Graven One reversed the handles on its scythes and plunged them into his own chest. The blades seemed to disappear without any hesitation, when they were up to the hilts; the immortal seemingly broke down into a cloud of dust.

As soon as he heard the roar, he decided it was time to start moving again. His side was mainly healed, the organs were completely healed, and over eighty percent of the muscle was finished as well. Now, he would need to simply wait out the other twenty percent as well as a disinfection time for the muscles as the skin regenerates. It was an agonizingly slow process but not all that bad for only a few minutes, far more time then he figured he would get.

Panting slightly from the exertion of fifteen, seamless body-flickers without the hand signs for a medium, Naruto came to a stop atop a mountain far west of thorium point, beyond the searing gorges boundaries. He could still spot the now, relatively tiny form of the dragon coming at him from a large distance.

Giving himself a quick field scan once again before stretching the new layer of skin slightly, getting it used to the stress as quickly as possible. _"Okay, think Naruto think, break down the technique. The fact that it didn't curve to hit me dead on proves that it's a straight line shot, firing mechanism and time delay are unknown, symptoms known as well as counter-measures, area of effect is unknown as well. Well damn, that does not leave a whole lot of options to try._

"Can't let them get the drop on me this time, who knows how many more of those attacks the bastard can pull off. I guess that rules out direct engagements unless I really have to." He mentioned offhandedly to himself while flipping quickly through the pages of his tome. A grin split across his face as he landed on one page in particular.

Using his one free hand to create the half seal for the shadow clone technique, he allowed a small chuckle as four clones poofed into existence. "Run interference for me, I'm going to need a few minutes to set this up, full authorization for nin-jutsu, if gen-jutsu works, use it."

"Hai!" The four responded in synch before dashing off towards the dragon.

"Now then." He began while unsealing a single sheet of parchment and a glass beaker containing over a liter of dark red blood. The parchment had on it a highly detailed array of criss-crossing lines and symbols on it at varying angles and lengths. "Let's begin."

"The test has begun." The ominous voice called out, sounding from all directions, passing almost as an echo.

"Yes master, the immortals have begun their battle."

"Then may we await the results, he has much potential to be the key to victory over the legion. If he falls today however, it will not make much difference, just mean that he was not the one we needed. Continue your infiltration of the betrayer's ranks, gone he may be, but he is still a threat we cannot ignore, for he will return, I have seen it so."

"And what of the watcher?"

"Leave the raven to his schemes and tricks. It matters not at this point in time."

"As you wish master."

Letting out a labored breath, Naruto stood to his feet, leaving a small hole in the mountain top where he had withdrawn his palm. In his other hand were the parchment and the empty blood container that still had a single drop on the lip.

Wiping away the sweat that was beading on his brow, he turned towards the commotion of the skeletal dragon. He really had to thank Kakashi for teaching him about the recon ability of clones, now he knew one annoying trait of the dragon, it only cost him a clone to find out.

The damn thing can heal itself, whenever the dragon got a cut along it or even a broken bone a dust cloud would appear out of the dragon's mouth and just hover over the wound. When the dust disappeared, the wound would be gone much to his annoyance, apparently the dust seemed to fly out of the lungs and esophagus, and returned the same way. It did not matter, he knew what he was walking into and had planned accordingly.

"Now comes the hard part." He groused to himself, looking directly at the approaching form of the dragon. Taking a slow breath, he ran at an angle towards the monstrosity of the sky.

Running full speed, dodging large rocks and the shifting of looser earth along the mountain tops, he came up on the left hand side of the dragon. Stopping in a crouch along the slope of the mountain spire, he starred straight at the beast while forming a set of seals.

The dragon seemed to have noticed him at the last second, turning to face him while barring its maw open with steam already rising from the beast's throat. With a lasting snarl it dived, flame now rolling from its mouth as the Jinchuuriki leapt upwards to meet the beast in the air, a tiny marble sized ball of energy in his right hand.

Forming a half seal with his free hand, a shadow cloned formed underneath him. With a single handspring, he was rising into the air above the flames just as they impacted with his clone.

Without the membranes in between the wings of a living dragon, the skeleton lacked the ability to slow down quick enough to stop and redirect itself before Naruto latched onto its collar bone. With a heavy application of chakra, he then managed to hold on without tearing his arm off. That didn't stop if from being ripped out of its socket from the resulting force.

As soon as he felt himself gain a relative control over his body, he let go allowing himself to slip right through past the dragon's ribcage. With a smirk as he passed through, he let go of the marble, allowing it to almost hover for less then a second right next the dragon's heart.

"Wind Release: Four Winds Bomb." He whispered just as the small marble exploded outwards with gale force winds, thousands of hair thin super sonic blades of winds spurned on in front of the pressure.

The dragon didn't even get the chance to scream as the thin blades scattered both its hearts and lungs into small chunks, falling from the sky. The blades continued on, past the organs, scratching and tearing off chunks of bone the strength of high grade steel. When the winds had calmed the dragon was barely a third as large as it once was, whatever power, curse, or seals were keeping it together had not had the chance to fully repair all the damage that was happening. Instead, it focused on reworking the skeletal structure into a once again fully functional form by re assimilating the base elements of the damaged bone into itself.

The organs thankfully enough could not be retrieved judging from the still hanging flaps of gore from the new ribcage. The dust seemed to disperse without its carrier, scattered along the four winds.

"_Time for phase two, remember whatever you do, don't stop moving."_ He thought himself as he cushioned his fall with a quick application of wind chakra directly under him before taking off like a bullet. The now surprisingly quicker dragon after him like a heartbeat.

Dashing across the mountain tops at high speeds, ducking and weaving between any cover he could find he aimed towards the vast seal array he had already prepared. It had only taken him a minute to arrive in the center of the array, the mountain peak.

"_Just have to time this right." _He thought to himself as he kneeled down in front of the hole he had made earlier, all the while staring at the dragon that was right now diving at him. The bone talons seemed to shriek as they tore through the air, aimed straight at him.

"_Wait for it, wait for it."_ The dragon was right now just passing over the array's outer edge.

"_NOW!" _Slamming his fist, glowing fiercely with the fiery glow of chakra downwards through the earth over top the already made whole. As soon as he did, he made contact with a liquid substance that quickly ignited with the chakra, turning into a glowing light that passed upwards through the hole.

Using the body-flicker as soon as the blood underground ignited he watched just outside of the seal array as a blood red barrier spread upwards from the outer edge, climbing high into the sky before diverging into a horizontal plane, completely sealing off the dragon.

Roaring at being trapped in the red cage, the dragon began scratching, tearing, and bashing away at the barrier. However as soon as the bone struck the shield it immediately started to blacken and melt away as an intense heat burned away at the contact. Less then a second later it screeched in anger as its confinement set in only for it to turn to one of true hatred as it watched the walls of its prison slowly start to retract in towards its center.

All through this Naruto watched with grim satisfaction as the dragon continued to attempt an escape from the prison. Only to stop as soon as it found each hit seemed to speed up the retraction.

Feeling a presence behind him, he ducked just in time to avoid a bone scythe from a still emotionless Graven One. The sharp bones managing to cut it close by shaving off a few hairs.

Noticing the follow up downward strike from the second blade, he twisted while swinging his arm out behind him, dodging the blade that would have cleaved him from crown to crotch. His arm out whistled through the air, smashing into the back of the Graven One's knee, causing it to fall forward onto the now almost shattered knee.

It took a large amount of restraint on Naruto's part to not shout out as the force from the blow travelled up his arm and back into his still loose shoulder.

In one fluid motion as the immortal hit the ground, Naruto drew one of his kunai from its place in his boot with a chakra string. As soon as it landed comfortably in his hand, he rammed it through the Graven Ones skull. He felt the back of its skull cave in with the force of his blow, grinding through the bone until it plunged into the softer brain matter underneath. With one final twist of the knife to make absolutely sure it was over, he yanked it out of its skull, using then a quick application of fire to remove the brain matter and fluids still hanging to the blade.

Letting loose a deep breath as he pocketed his kunai, Naruto turned to look back over his shoulder at the corpse. "Bastard _didn't even make a sound as its knee was smashed, talk about pain tolerance." _Hearing a fairly distinct sound of dragon bone scraping on dragon bone, he turned to the still active form of the dragon familiar as the cage had managed to force it to the ground. _"…Wait a minute. When a summoner dies, the familiar is supposed to lose the energies sustaining it, Shit!" _He realized with widening eyes, quickly forming several shadow clones in front of him, just in time to stop the diseased force that would have slammed into him if he had waited a moment more.

Without a second thought, he leapt straight the smoke his now dispelled clones released, aiming right where he remembered the undead. He ducked as soon as his feet touched the grown, just dodging under another bone blade. His knee came right back up before the Graven One even knew what hit it, sending it flying backwards with extreme force. Before the body hit the ground, it burst into black dust, scattering across the mountains and hills that were their battlefield.

"_I swear I saw that hole in the back of his head was still there."_ He thought to himself while once again activating Fumeizatsuki out of habit to quickly move to a more secure location. _"Okay so the bastard's eyes diluted slightly when he fired whatever the hell that thing was. Sight must be the trigger as well somehow_

These thoughts however stopped when he found he had run into a box canyon, well for anyone without shinobi training anyway. _"Probably should have gotten the layout of the place first shouldn't I."_

"**No shit brat, it would have also helped if the monkey brain of yours was intelligent enough to not fight an immortal just after making a thousand other wastes of flesh." **The fox growled from inside its cage irritably.

"_Chakra." _The blonde corrected before saying to himself. "You know, I'm pretty sure the snake bastard is rolling over in his grave right now at missing such a wonderful specimen."

When a small pebble hit the ground only a few feet away from him, his relatively laid back demeanor switched once again. It only took him a fraction of a second to draw a slip of paper emblazoned with elemental seals to make it into his hand, sticking to thumb and middle finger with chakra. A second rock dropped down from above, far closer to him as the temperature in the area took a sudden drop far beyond rational levels. Within seconds, he could already feel a small amount of frost beginning to lick its way onto his sweat covered body; this problem was dealt with quick enough as a small flare of fire natured chakra pulsed outwards from him. The seal tag started letting out small electrical discharges as it seemingly absorbed the chakra in the flames around it, reducing them to cinders.

It only took him a moment longer to lock onto the presence of his new attacker coming from above. It was a creature made of pure ice, a black and silver mace and set of armor seemed magically glued to its frame, an ice revenant from what he had read. Swinging his tagged hand into the sky, aiming straight at the descending ice creature, in a matter of nanoseconds the small discharges grew outwards, replicating a Raikiri being formed. "Sealing arts: elemental conversion tag, lightning." Naruto voiced loudly as a bolt of lightning erupted outwards from the now smoldering tag. The bolt blew a hole through the revenant's chest at the speed of light, melting the creature to nothing more then a few droplets of water while the rest evaporated into the air, the rest of the tag dispersing into ash after its use.

The temperature quickly rose after the revenant dispersed, continuing to rise far beyond its original level. "Must have been a mage before the rituals." He guessed as the ground began to tremble and the rock began to melt. Raising a single brow Naruto clenched his fists, gathering the still present moisture in the air into small chakra saturated layers on his right hand. "Two at once, sounds like fun." With a small smirk, he launched himself into the air just in time as the earth where he had been standing split apart violently.

A single brownish black hand broke through the earth like it was paper, followed by a second mostly composed of rock. With a noticeable heave, the creature broke itself free of the volcanic ground as it slowly rose into the air. At first it looked almost exactly like the earth elemental, however when it pulled itself free he noticed instead of the usual spiraling, magically supported rocks they normally used for movement, a pair of human looking legs made of rock, feldspar by the looks of it. Instead of the usually obtrusive form of an elemental, it bore an almost human like form if you exempt that it was almost ten feet tall. On its chest, arms, head, and shoulders looked to be solid crystal armor made of imperial topaz. A mace of the same material was in its hand, wielded almost as if it weighed nothing.

Taking a quick glance back, he found himself in a pincer between the earth revenant and a fire revenant. The creature born of the fire behind him was humanoid looking like his earth counterpart, walking on legs of fire instead of their elemental cousins. The flames that made up the creatures body leaked out from between flowing crimson robes that neither blackened nor singed under the intense heat. Over top the creature's red robes was a suit of steel scale mail armor, that seemed to hold the creature together as flames smoked and flared out of its armor anywhere it could. In its gauntleted hands rested, a tower shield with a single glowing yellow eye emblazoned onto it while in the other was a long sword shaped like a flowing flame.

"Long reaching weapons, one made of fully physical material another made of semi-physical energy, generally able to control their elements effectively." He said to himself while fingering the kunai in his hands.

A maniacal grin split his face as his eyes took on a feral look. "Let's have some fun!"

The sound of the old fashion pistol cocking behind him was the only warning the immortal received before the bullet smashed into the back of his head.

The attack didn't stop there as a series of cuts appeared all over his body, cutting every ligament and tendon in the muscle in under ten seconds.

Even as the immortal was falling, the attacker never stopped. He felt his relatively useless arms being cuffed together by what he felt was oddly enough a sheet of paper. The same sheets of paper were then applied to almost every joint on his body including one over the hole in his head.

Lastly, a spear pierced through his hands at the wrist and through his stomach, pinning him face down to the ground.

Even through all of this, the undead never died nor screamed.

"You really are a tough son of a bitch to kill, you know that." The blond said as he eyed his now indisposed attacker. He seemed a little out of breath with burn marks covering his boy and a few broken bones grinding away every time he moved.

"And you are not an easy demon to find, living among mortals the way you do." The Graven one intoned calmly, seeming to ignore the spear jutting out of his back.

"You know, if I actually knew how to kill you I would." Even after this many years, being called a demon by someone still struck a cord in him. He refrained from doing anything over the top at that point and began walking away.

"Odd, the avatar of death you bear must be screaming for my death." The Graven continued towards the blonds retreating.

Standing a good few feet away from the undead now, he cocked his head to the side. "Who said he wasn't, I'm just getting out of the blast range." He said while making a single hand sign.

Moments later the area exploded into a fireball.

"Sakura always did say I was a magnet for trouble when I was bored," He let out a humorless chuckle here, "I guess she was right."

Yes I know this is a short chapter and I dislike myself right now.

Mainly my writers block has been coming and going again and when it finally does go its for a story other then this one much too my annoyance. So basically I said screw it and just decided to toss this little bit on for now, once again still not happy with this chapter, probably going to go back over it if I ever stop looking at the other stories I have planned. Actually I have to go back over a whole bunch of points in this story already that Dusel helped me notice and figure out.

Be happy to know though that I now actually have the plot for this story worked out.

Till next time whenever that is, Stephen Wolfgang


End file.
